Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!uxc!garcon!news
From: news@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu ( Paul Pomes)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: What if...
Message-ID: <703@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 31 Mar 89 05:18:40 GMT
Reply-To: ahiggins@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Andrew Higgins)
Followup-To: <5042@cbnews.ATT.COM> <15.UUL1.3#5131@mvac.UUCP>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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<7726@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
From: ahiggins@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Andrew Higgins)
Path: pequod.cso.uiuc.edu!ahiggins

From: jwm@stdc.jhuapl.edu (Jim Meritt)

>MIR was freezing over when the Russian cosmonauts went back up - so cold that
>it was below the temp gauges.  They spat on the walls and timed how long it
>took to freeze to get an idea of the temperature.

Sorry. Right story, wrong space station.

The 'spit on the wall' story was from the June 1985 re-activation of Salyut 7, 
which had lost electrical power and began tumbling about six months earlier.  
Since the cosmonauts' thermometers only went to zero Celsius, the temperature 
was estimated by timing the freezing of saliva.  All the water storage tanks 
were also frozen, so the cosmonauts were prepared to drink the coolant from 
their space suits.

Some other interesting things happened in the re-activation of Salyut 7.  
Since the ventilators were shut down, carbon dioxide pockets would build up 
around the working cosmonauts like clouds.  When the station was finally 
reactivated, the humidity shot up, making the station uncomfortable for 
months.
--
 Andrew J. Higgins	          |     Illini Space Development Society
 ahiggins@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu     |     a chapter of the National Space Society
 phone: (217) 359-0056            |     at the University of Illinois
          P.O. Box 2255 - Station A, Champaign, IL  61825
"We are all tired of being stuck on this cosmical speck with its monotonous
 ocean, leaden sky and single moon that is half useless....so it seems to me
 that the future glory of the human race lies in the exploration of at least 
 the solar system!"                          - John Jacob Astor, 1894