[FPSPACE] Buran.Ru news - Polyus vs Mir-2

[Bart Hendrickx]

Mark Wade wrote :


>This seems not to just be propaganda but to confirm that the Polyus module
>was the intended core of the Mir-2 station [snip].... Therefore the loss of
>Polyus may have had much larger meaning than was thought (eg it halted a
>Mir-2 assembly sequence in its tracks). It seems a possibility that the
real
>Mir-2 was going to be a military station, with the Polyus (equipped with an
>FGB tug) launched first, followed by the DOS 8  serial number 128 (finally
>launched as the ISS service module).


It is true that there were plans in the 1980s to build Mir-2 on the basis of
DOS-8 and a number of Energia-launched 100-ton class modules. Those 100-ton
modules may very well have been inspired on the Polyus bus, but I don't
think it's true that Polyus *itself*¨was to be the first element of Mir-2,
which is what Mark seems to be suggesting here. Actually, Polyus was quickly
thrown together to provide the first flightworthy Energiya with a payload.

Based on what Russian sources have written, the history of Polyus began in
1976 when NPO Energiya started work on two types of anti-satellite "battle
stations" with a common design. One of these was to use laser-type weapons
to destroy low-orbiting satellites, the other missiles to destroy satellites
in medium and geostationary orbits. Because of the heavy workload at NPO
Energiya the laser project was transferred to KB Salyut in 1981. KB Salyut
worked out plans for a 40m long 95 ton object (called "Skif") that was to be
built at the Khrunichev plant and was to be launched by Energiya. The laser
payload was to be provided by NPO Astrofizika (which had been involved in
developing ground-based laser weapons). After President Reagan's
announcement of the SDI programme in 1983 a new mission of Skif appears to
have become the destruction of ballistic missiles. A 60 ton experimental
laser installation was flown on several aircraft starting in 1983 in support
of the Skif programme. The space-based tests were to begin with what is
referred to as a "dynamic analogue" called Skif-D.

This is where the first Energiya flight enters the story. Originally this
was supposed to be flown with an unmanned Buran orbiter on Energiya vehicle
1L. However, the Russians had second thoughts about flying Buran on the
maiden flight of Energiya and, moreover, Buran was running into serious
delays. Therefore a plan was hammered out to transform the final test model
for static test firings (vehicle 6S) into an actual flight vehicle
(redesignated 6SL) and fly an alternative payload on it. One idea was to fly
an empty canister about the size of Buran's cargo bay, which would remain
attached to the core stage and reenter together with it. However, there was
pressure from the Ministry of General Machine Building and Glushko to fly
some sort of semi-operational payload that would actually enter orbit. At
that point (summer 1985) the idea arose to attach an available FGB section
to the Skif-D (which apparently was already in some stage of construction)
and launch that on Energia 6SL. This version of Skif-D became known as
Skif-DM and eventually Polyus ("Pole"), which was painted on the side.

One of the payloads was supposed to be a series of targets that would be
released from Skif-DM and subsequently be destroyed by it, but that plan was
dropped for political reasons in early 1987, a couple of months before the
launch. Polyus was designed to operate in orbit for no longer than about a
month. Despite the fact that the name Mir-2 was painted on the front, I
don't think there was any relation between Polyus and Mir-2 with the
possible exception that Mir-2's 100 ton modules shared a common "shell"
design. For the sake of clarity, the giant Mir-2 gave way to a much more
modest station after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

An interesting side-note : according to the memoirs of Boris Gubanov the
name "Energiya" for the rocket was suggested by Glushko to Gorbachov when
the latter visited Baikonur in the days before the maiden launch in May
1987. Glushko thought it was appropriate because "energy" was one of the
mottos of Gorbachov's policy of perestroika. At the same time he did of
course point out to Gorbachov that it happened to be the name of his company
as well. Until that time the name Buran had been used for *both* the orbiter
and the rocket, which had caused quite some confusion among the people
involved in the programme since its inception in 1976. The version in which
the rocket carried an unmanned payload canister rather than the orbiter was
known as Buran-T.

Bart Hendrickx