Misplaced Pages

#469530

118-490: STS-60 was the first mission of the U.S./Russian Shuttle-Mir Program , and the 18th flight of Discovery, in which Sergei K. Krikalev became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a Space Shuttle . The mission used NASA Space Shuttle Discovery , which lifted off from Launch Pad 39A on February 3, 1994, from Kennedy Space Center , Florida . The mission carried the Wake Shield Facility experiment and

236-647: A Salyut space station , with later talks in the 1980s even considering flights of the future Soviet shuttles from the Buran programme to a future US space station – this "Shuttle– Salyut " program never materialized however during the existence of the Soviet Intercosmos program. This changed after the Dissolution of the Soviet Union : the end of Cold War and Space Race resulted in funding for

354-625: A SPACEHAB module, developed by SPACEHAB Inc., into orbit, and carried out a live bi-directional audio and downlink link-up with the cosmonauts aboard the Russian space station Mir . After External Tank (ET) separation and main engine cutoff (MECO), a 2.5 minutes OMS burn was initiated at 12:52 UTC that circularized Discovery ' s orbit from a 74 by 352 km (46 by 219 mi) orbit to 353 by 352 km (219 by 219 mi). Shortly after liftoff, pilot Kenneth S. Reightler Jr. experienced problems with his portable headset. The problem

472-522: A carcinogen , as do IARC and ECA , and it is considered a known carcinogen in animals. On the other hand, a 2013 review (funded by industry) argued against these classifications, saying that when rats or mice inhale fine GaAs powders (as in previous studies), they get cancer from the resulting lung irritation and inflammation, rather than from a primary carcinogenic effect of the GaAs itself—and that, moreover, fine GaAs powders are unlikely to be created in

590-404: A direct band gap , which means that it can be used to absorb and emit light efficiently. Silicon has an indirect band gap and so is relatively poor at emitting light. As a wide direct band gap material with resulting resistance to radiation damage, GaAs is an excellent material for outer space electronics and optical windows in high power applications. Because of its wide band gap, pure GaAs

708-465: A complex that was the world's largest spacecraft at that time, with a combined mass of 250 metric tons (250 long tons ; 280 short tons ). The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system that was operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program . Its official program name

826-551: A diplomatic channel for NASA to take part in the funding of the cripplingly under-funded Russian space program. This in turn allowed the newly fledged Russian government to keep Mir operating, in addition to the Russian space program as a whole, ensuring the Russian government remained friendly towards the United States. In addition to the flights of the Shuttle to Mir , Phase One also featured seven "Increments" aboard

944-408: A fast CMOS structure, GaAs circuits must use logic styles which have much higher power consumption; this has made GaAs logic circuits unable to compete with silicon logic circuits. For manufacturing solar cells, silicon has relatively low absorptivity for sunlight, meaning about 100 micrometers of Si is needed to absorb most sunlight. Such a layer is relatively robust and easy to handle. In contrast,

1062-416: A go to start SPACEHAB deactivation at 13:00 UTC and this was complete by 15:20 UTC. Landing was at KSC runway 15 at 19:18:41 UTC. Shuttle-Mir Program The Shuttle– Mir program ( Russian : Программа «Мир»–«Шаттл» ) was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States that involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir , Russian cosmonauts flying on

1180-630: A large truss structure that spans 109 metres (358 ft), making it the largest spacecraft ever assembled. The completed station consists of five laboratories and is able to support six crew members. With over 332 cubic metres (11,700 cu ft) of habitable volume and a mass of 400,000 kilograms (880,000 lb) the completed station is almost twice the size of the combined Shuttle– Mir spacecraft. Phases Two and Three are intended to continue both international cooperation in space and zero-gravity scientific research, particularly regarding long-duration spaceflight. By spring 2015, Roscosmos , NASA, and

1298-483: A near collision with a Progress resupply cargo ship during a long-distance manual docking system test and a total loss of station electrical power. The power failure also caused a loss of attitude control , which led to an uncontrolled "tumble" through space. The next NASA astronaut to stay on Mir was Michael Foale . Foale and Russian mission specialist Elena Kondakova boarded Mir from Atlantis on mission STS-84 . The STS-84 crew transferred 249 items between

SECTION 10

#1732773304470

1416-584: A new space station, which eventually became the International Space Station. They also agreed, in preparation for this new project, that the United States would be heavily involved in the Mir project in the years ahead, under the code name "Phase One" (the construction of the ISS being "Phase Two"). The first Space Shuttle flight to Mir was a rendezvous mission without docking on STS-63 . This

1534-431: A solar cell with 33.3% efficiency based on inverted metamorphic multi-junction (IMM) technology. In IMM, the lattice-matched (same lattice parameters) materials are grown first, followed by mismatched materials. The top cell, GaInP, is grown first and lattice matched to the GaAs substrate, followed by a layer of either GaAs or GaInAs with a minimal mismatch, and the last layer has the greatest lattice mismatch. After growth,

1652-510: A solar cell, and thus a smaller (and therefore less expensive) GaAs solar cell is needed to achieve the same results. Concentrator systems have the highest efficiency of existing photovoltaics. So, technologies such as concentrator photovoltaics and methods in development to lower epitaxial growth and substrate costs could lead to a reduction in the cost of GaAs solar cells and forge a path for use in terrestrial applications. GaAs has been used to produce near-infrared laser diodes since 1962. It

1770-482: A suitable material for the rapidly developing field of nanoelectronics . Naturally, a GaAs surface cannot withstand the high temperatures needed for diffusion; however a viable and actively pursued alternative as of the 1980s was ion implantation. The second major advantage of Si is the existence of a native oxide ( silicon dioxide , SiO 2 ), which is used as an insulator . Silicon dioxide can be incorporated onto silicon circuits easily, and such layers are adherent to

1888-453: A tert-butyl gallium sulfide compound such as ( BuGaS) 7 . In the presence of excess arsenic, GaAs boules grow with crystallographic defects ; specifically, arsenic antisite defects (an arsenic atom at a gallium atom site within the crystal lattice). The electronic properties of these defects (interacting with others) cause the Fermi level to be pinned to near the center of

2006-829: A very high impurity density, which makes it difficult to build integrated circuits with small structures, so the 500 nm process is a common process for GaAs. Silicon has about three times the thermal conductivity of GaAs, with less risk of local overheating in high power devices. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) transistors are used in the RF power amplifiers for cell phones and wireless communicating. GaAs wafers are used in laser diodes , photodetectors , and radio frequency (RF) amplifiers for mobile phones and base stations. GaAs transistors are also integral to monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) , utilized in satellite communication and radar systems, as well as in low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) that enhance weak signals. Gallium arsenide

2124-481: A waste dump nozzle. The Wake Shield Facility deployment operation was canceled on February 5, 1994. This delay was the result of several factors, including radio interference and an inability to read the Wake Shield Facility's status lights when the orbiter's payload bay is in full sunlight . Deployment originally was scheduled for 16:00 UTC, but after grappling the free-flyer and lifting it out of

2242-399: Is a result of higher carrier mobilities and lower resistive device parasitics. These superior properties are compelling reasons to use GaAs circuitry in mobile phones , satellite communications, microwave point-to-point links and higher frequency radar systems. It is also used in the manufacture of Gunn diodes for the generation of microwaves . Another advantage of GaAs is that it has

2360-570: Is abundant and cheap to process in the form of silicate minerals. The economies of scale available to the silicon industry has also hindered the adoption of GaAs. In addition, a Si crystal has a very stable structure and can be grown to very large diameter boules and processed with very good yields. It is also a fairly good thermal conductor, thus enabling very dense packing of transistors that need to get rid of their heat of operation, all very desirable for design and manufacturing of very large ICs . Such good mechanical characteristics also make it

2478-428: Is also preliminary evidence that spalling could be used to remove the substrate for reuse. An alternative path to reduce substrate cost is to use cheaper materials, although materials for this application are not currently commercially available or developed. Yet another consideration to lower GaAs solar cell costs could be concentrator photovoltaics . Concentrators use lenses or parabolic mirrors to focus light onto

SECTION 20

#1732773304470

2596-505: Is an important semiconductor material for high-cost, high-efficiency solar cells and is used for single-crystalline thin-film solar cells and for multi-junction solar cells . The first known operational use of GaAs solar cells in space was for the Venera 3 mission, launched in 1965. The GaAs solar cells, manufactured by Kvant, were chosen because of their higher performance in high temperature environments. GaAs cells were then used for

2714-402: Is epitaxial lift-off (ELO), but this method is time-consuming, somewhat dangerous (with its use of hydrofluoric acid ), and requires multiple post-processing steps. However, other methods have been proposed that use phosphide-based materials and hydrochloric acid to achieve ELO with surface passivation and minimal post- etching residues and allows for direct reuse of the GaAs substrate. There

2832-406: Is highly resistive. Combined with a high dielectric constant , this property makes GaAs a very good substrate for integrated circuits and unlike Si provides natural isolation between devices and circuits. This has made it an ideal material for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), where active and essential passive components can readily be produced on a single slice of GaAs. One of

2950-550: Is largely due to the cost of GaAs solar cells - in space applications, high performance is required and the corresponding high cost of the existing GaAs technologies is accepted. For example, GaAs-based photovoltaics show the best resistance to gamma radiation and high temperature fluctuations, which are of great importance for spacecraft. But in comparison to other solar cells, III-V solar cells are two to three orders of magnitude more expensive than other technologies such as silicon-based solar cells. The primary sources of this cost are

3068-432: Is often used in alloys with other semiconductor compounds for these applications. N -type GaAs doped with silicon donor atoms (on Ga sites) and boron acceptor atoms (on As sites) responds to ionizing radiation by emitting scintillation photons. At cryogenic temperatures it is among the brightest scintillators known and is a promising candidate for detecting rare electronic excitations from interacting dark matter, due to

3186-419: Is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits , monolithic microwave integrated circuits , infrared light-emitting diodes , laser diodes , solar cells and optical windows. GaAs is often used as a substrate material for the epitaxial growth of other III-V semiconductors, including indium gallium arsenide , aluminum gallium arsenide and others. Gallium arsenide

3304-561: The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have agreed to extend the ISS's mission from 2020 to 2024. In 2018 that was then extended out to 2030. The results of this research will provide considerable information for long-duration expeditions to the Moon and flights to Mars . Following the intentional deorbiting of Mir on 23 March 2001, the ISS became the only space station in orbit around Earth. It retained that distinction until

3422-579: The Earth . They also assisted in the maintenance and repair of the aging station, following various incidents with fires, collisions, power losses, uncontrolled spins and toxic leaks. In all, the American astronauts would spend almost a thousand days aboard Mir , allowing NASA to learn a great deal about long-duration spaceflight, particularly in the areas of astronaut psychology and how best to arrange experiment schedules for crews aboard space stations. Mir

3540-493: The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems achieved a 68.9% efficiency when exposing a GaAs thin film photovoltaic cell to monochromatic laser light with a wavelength of 858 nanometers. Today, multi-junction GaAs cells have the highest efficiencies of existing photovoltaic cells and trajectories show that this is likely to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. In 2022, Rocket Lab unveiled

3658-735: The International Space Station . Lucid became the first American woman to live on station, and, following a six-week extension to her Increment due to issues with Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters , her 188-day mission set the US single spaceflight record. During Lucid's time aboard Mir , the Priroda module, with about 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) of US science hardware, was docked to Mir . Lucid made use of both Priroda and Spektr to carry out 28 different science experiments and as living quarters. Her stay aboard Mir ended with

STS-60 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3776-895: The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds. The Space Shuttle carried large payloads to various orbits, and, during the Shuttle– Mir and ISS programs, provided crew rotation and carried various supplies, modules and pieces of equipment to the stations. Each Shuttle was designed for a projected lifespan of 100 launches or 10 years' operational life. Nine docking missions were flown to Mir , from 1995 to 1997 during "Phase One": Space Shuttle Atlantis docked seven times to Mir , with Discovery and Endeavour each flying one docking mission to Mir . As Space Shuttle Columbia

3894-714: The Lunokhod rovers for the same reason. In 1970, the GaAs heterostructure solar cells were developed by the team led by Zhores Alferov in the USSR , achieving much higher efficiencies. In the early 1980s, the efficiency of the best GaAs solar cells surpassed that of conventional, crystalline silicon -based solar cells. In the 1990s, GaAs solar cells took over from silicon as the cell type most commonly used for photovoltaic arrays for satellite applications. Later, dual- and triple-junction solar cells based on GaAs with germanium and indium gallium phosphide layers were developed as

4012-624: The Russian Federation , as the successor to much of the Soviet Union and its space program, the deteriorating economic situation in the post-Soviet economic chaos led to growing financial problems of the now Russian space station program. The construction of the Mir-2 space station as a replacement for the aging Mir became illusionary, though only after its base block, DOS-8, had been built. These developments resulted in bringing

4130-558: The Russian Space Agency (PKA). The project helped to prepare the way for further cooperative space ventures; specifically, "Phase Two" of the joint project, the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The program was announced in 1993, the first mission started in 1994 and the project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1,000 cumulative days in space for American astronauts occurred over

4248-808: The Sun in an attempt to warm up the sensor's electronics package. The last deployment opportunity for on February 6, 1994, was a 50-minute window beginning at 19:23 UTC on orbit 54 but WSF was not ready. It was left mounted on the Canadarm during the crew sleep period while ground controllers considered their options. On its perch at the end of the RMS over night, WSF was able to grow 2 Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) thin films. The next deployment opportunity on February 7, 1994, would have been during orbit 67 but payload controllers and flight controllers determined that there would be insufficient time to safely develop contingency procedures in

4366-421: The epitaxial growth costs and the substrate the cell is deposited on. GaAs solar cells are most commonly fabricated utilizing epitaxial growth techniques such as metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). A significant reduction in costs for these methods would require improvements in tool costs, throughput, material costs, and manufacturing efficiency. Increasing

4484-521: The southern United States . Afterwards, work progressed with SPACEHAB-2 module and middeck experiments while Wake Shield Facility continued operations at the end of the Canadarm. A slight problem developed with the status indicators on the 3-DMA experiment and the crew downlinked video to aid in troubleshooting. The astronauts ended Flight Day 6 at 00:10 UTC (February 9, 1994). Flight Day 7 (February 9, 1994) began at 08:20 UTC. ODERACS operations were scheduled for 14:55 UTC during Orbit 97 and BREMSAT deploy

4602-415: The 1950s. First infrared LEDs were made in 1962. In the compound, gallium has a +3 oxidation state . Gallium arsenide single crystals can be prepared by three industrial processes: Alternative methods for producing films of GaAs include: Oxidation of GaAs occurs in air, degrading performance of the semiconductor. The surface can be passivated by depositing a cubic gallium(II) sulfide layer using

4720-461: The Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes . This agreement called for setting up a short, joint space project, during which one American astronaut would board the Russian space station Mir and two Russian cosmonauts would board a Space Shuttle. In September 1993, American Vice-President Al Gore Jr. , and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced plans for

4838-545: The International Space Station. Foale's Increment proceeded fairly normally until June 25, when a resupply ship collided with solar arrays on the Spektr module during the second test of the Progress manual docking system, TORU. The module's outer shell was hit and holed, which caused the station to lose pressure. This was the first on-orbit depressurization in the history of spaceflight. The crew quickly cut cables leading to

STS-60 - Misplaced Pages Continue

4956-528: The Shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to allow American astronauts to engage in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir . The project, sometimes called "Phase One", was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience with long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their space agencies , the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and

5074-454: The Shuttle– Mir program can be traced back to the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project , that resulted in a joint US/Soviet mission during the détente period of the Cold War and the docking between a US Apollo spacecraft and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. This was followed by the talks between NASA and Intercosmos in the 1970s about a "Shuttle– Salyut " program to fly Space Shuttle missions to

5192-470: The Si-SiO 2 . Aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) has been extensively studied as a possible gate oxide for GaAs (as well as InGaAs ). The third advantage of silicon is that it possesses a higher hole mobility compared to GaAs (500 versus 400 cm V s ). This high mobility allows the fabrication of higher-speed P-channel field-effect transistors , which are required for CMOS logic. Because they lack

5310-692: The Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) Experiment. Sergei Krikalev had been operating the SAMS experiment. At 12:38 UTC on February 8, 1994, Good Morning America performed a live bi-directional audio and downlink video hookup between astronauts on board Discovery and 3 cosmonauts on board the Russian Mir Space Station . Discovery was over the Pacific Ocean and Mir was over

5428-652: The Station. The astronauts also received practice in carrying out spacewalks outside Mir and lessons in the Russian language , which would be used throughout their missions to talk with the other cosmonauts aboard the station and Mission Control in Russia, the TsUP . During their expeditions aboard Mir , the astronauts carried out various experiments, including growth of crops and crystals, and took hundreds of photographs of

5546-616: The Three-Dimensional Microgravity Accelerometer (3-DMA) experiment, Astroculture experiment (ASC-3), Bioserve Pilot Lab (BPL), Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus experiment (CGBA), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth experiment (CPCG), Controlled Liquid Phase Sintering-Hab (ECLiPSE-Hab), Immune Response Studies Experiment (IMMUNE-01), Organic Separation experiment (ORSEP), Space Experiment Facility (SEF), Penn State Biomodule (PSB) and

5664-465: The US modular space station (originally named Freedom ), which was planned since the early 1980s, being slashed. Similar budgetary difficulties were being faced by other nations with space station projects, prompting American government officials to start negotiations with partners in Europe, Russia, Japan, and Canada in the early 1990s to begin a collaborative, multi-national, space station project. In

5782-612: The Wake Shield Facility and the receiver on its payload bay carrier resulted in a one-day delay. Wake Shield Facility deployment was also canceled on February 6, 1994, during its orbit 53 opportunity at 17:25 UTC, WSF and flight controllers worked on problems with the Pitch and Roll sensors on WSF's Attitude, Direction and Control system. Astronaut Jan Davis moved the wrist joint on the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm (Canadarm) to try to point WSF's Horizon Sensor into

5900-495: The absorptivity of GaAs is so high that only a few micrometers of thickness are needed to absorb all of the light. Consequently, GaAs thin films must be supported on a substrate material. Silicon is a pure element, avoiding the problems of stoichiometric imbalance and thermal unmixing of GaAs. Silicon has a nearly perfect lattice; impurity density is very low and allows very small structures to be built (down to 5 nm in commercial production as of 2020 ). In contrast, GaAs has

6018-538: The astronauts performed a number of operations to prepare Discovery for its trip home. These included Hot-Fire tests of all 44 Reaction Control Systems jets, Flight control system checkout, SAREX stow, CPCG Stow, ASC-3 Deactivation, ORSEP Deactivation, stowage of all non-essential cabin items and Ku-Band antenna stow. Flight Day 9 (February 11, 1994) operations included the powerup of all critical orbiter entry systems (Group B powerup), SAMS deactivation, CAPL Deactivation and De-Orbit preps. Ground controllers gave Discovery

SECTION 50

#1732773304470

6136-523: The band gap, so that this GaAs crystal has very low concentration of electrons and holes. This low carrier concentration is similar to an intrinsic (perfectly undoped) crystal, but much easier to achieve in practice. These crystals are called "semi-insulating", reflecting their high resistivity of 10 –10 Ω·cm (which is quite high for a semiconductor, but still much lower than a true insulator like glass). Wet etching of GaAs industrially uses an oxidizing agent such as hydrogen peroxide or bromine water, and

6254-551: The basis of a triple-junction solar cell, which held a record efficiency of over 32% and can operate also with light as concentrated as 2,000 suns. This kind of solar cell powered the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity , which explored Mars ' surface. Also many solar cars utilize GaAs in solar arrays, as did the Hubble Telescope. GaAs-based devices hold the world record for

6372-442: The capsule at a different location. This made Linenger the first American to undock from a space station aboard two different spacecraft (Space Shuttle and Soyuz). Linenger and his Russian crewmates Vasili Tsibliyev and Aleksandr Lazutkin faced several difficulties during the mission. These included the most severe fire aboard an orbiting spacecraft (caused by a backup oxygen-generating device), failures of various on board systems,

6490-415: The cargo bay and into the pre-deploy position, crew members and investigators on the ground were unable to tell whether power and transmitter status lights were giving the proper indications. After determining that the problem was not a systems failure, but difficulty in reading the status lights, the crew and flight controllers prepared for another release attempt. Interference between the radio transmitter on

6608-421: The cash-strapped Russian space program and worries from astronauts about the attitudes of the program administrators. Nevertheless, a large amount of science, expertise in space station construction and knowledge in working in a cooperative space venture was gained from the combined operations, allowing the construction of the ISS to proceed much more smoothly than would have otherwise been the case. The origins of

6726-481: The cell is mounted to a secondary handle and the GaAs substrate is removed. A main advantage of the IMM process is that the inverted growth according to lattice mismatch allows a path to higher cell efficiency. Complex designs of Al x Ga 1−x As-GaAs devices using quantum wells can be sensitive to infrared radiation ( QWIP ). GaAs diodes can be used for the detection of X-rays. Despite GaAs-based photovoltaics being

6844-412: The clear champions of efficiency for solar cells, they have relatively limited use in today's market. In both world electricity generation and world electricity generating capacity, solar electricity is growing faster than any other source of fuel (wind, hydro, biomass, and so on) for the last decade. However, GaAs solar cells have not currently been adopted for widespread solar electricity generation. This

6962-515: The condition of hardware and running cables through a special hatch from Spektr 's systems to the rest of the station. Following these first investigations, Foale and Solovyev conducted a 6-hour EVA on the surface of Spektr to inspect the damaged module. After these incidents, the US Congress and NASA considered whether to abandon the program out of concern for astronauts' safety but NASA administrator Daniel Goldin decided to continue

7080-582: The course of seven long-duration expeditions. In addition to Space Shuttle launches to Mir the United States also fully funded and equipped with scientific equipment the Spektr module (launched in 1995) and the Priroda module (launched in 1996), making them de facto U.S. modules during the duration of the Shuttle- Mir program. During the four-year program, many firsts in spaceflight were achieved by

7198-525: The course of the flight, nearly 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of water were transferred to Mir and experiment samples including blood, urine and saliva were moved to Atlantis for return to Earth. Continuous US presence aboard Mir started in 1996 with the March 22 launch of Atlantis on mission STS-76 , when the Second Increment astronaut Shannon Lucid was transferred to the station. STS-76

SECTION 60

#1732773304470

7316-404: The crew of Atlantis moved supplies to the station and returned to Earth the first plants to complete a life cycle in space; a crop of wheat planted by Shannon Lucid. During five days of mated operations, the crews transferred nearly 6,000 pounds (2,700 kg) of logistics to Mir , and transferred 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) of materials back to Atlantis (the most materials transferred between

7434-408: The deposition rate could reduce costs, but this cost reduction would be limited by the fixed times in other parts of the process such as cooling and heating. The substrate used to grow these solar cells is usually germanium or gallium arsenide which are notably expensive materials. One of the main pathways to reduce substrate costs is to reuse the substrate. An early method proposed to accomplish this

7552-546: The docking missions that followed. Five weeks after Discovery 's flight, the March 14 launch of Soyuz TM-21 carried expedition EO-18 to Mir . The crew consisted of cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov and NASA astronaut Norman Thagard , who became the first American to fly into space aboard the Soyuz spacecraft . During the course of their 115-day expedition, the Spektr science module (which served as living and working space for American astronauts)

7670-458: The eight-day flight saw the first rendezvous of a Space Shuttle with Mir , as Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov and the rest of Discovery 's crew approached within 37 feet (11 m) of Mir . Following the rendezvous, Collins performed a flyaround of the station. The mission, a dress rehearsal for the first docked mission in the program, STS-71 , also carried out testing of various techniques and pieces of equipment that would be used during

7788-462: The event that WSF was unable to maintain stable attitude control without the use of its Horizon Sensor. It was decided that for the remainder of the mission, all WSF operations would take place at the end of the Canadarm and there would be no WSF free-flying operations on the mission. On February 7, 1994, work had been progressing in the SPACEHAB-2 module on a number of experiments. These included

7906-533: The ever-improving CMOS microprocessor. Cray eventually built one GaAs-based machine in the early 1990s, the Cray-3 , but the effort was not adequately capitalized, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1995. Complex layered structures of gallium arsenide in combination with aluminium arsenide (AlAs) or the alloy Al x Ga 1−x As can be grown using molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) or using metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Because GaAs and AlAs have almost

8024-568: The expedition EO-18 crew. Atlantis also carried out on-orbit joint US-Russian life sciences investigations aboard a Spacelab module and performed a logistical resupply of the station. The final Shuttle flight of 1995, STS-74 , began with the November 12 launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis , and delivered the Russian-built Docking Module to Mir , along with a new pair of solar arrays and other hardware upgrades for

8142-491: The final Shuttle– Mir mission, STS-91 . The mission closed out Phase One, with the EO-25 and STS-91 crews transferring water to Mir and exchanging almost 4,700 pounds (2,100 kg) of cargo experiments and supplies between the two spacecraft. Long-term American experiments that had been on board Mir were also moved into Discovery . Hatches were closed for undocking at 9:07 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on June 8 and

8260-435: The final outfitting of the station, completed in 2012. In 2015, a reconfiguration of the American segment was completed to allow its docking ports to accommodate NASA-sponsored commercial crew vehicles, that were expected to start visiting the ISS in 2018. As of June 2015 , the ISS has a pressurized volume of 915 cubic metres (32,300 cu ft), and its pressurized modules total 51 metres (167 ft) in length, plus

8378-471: The fire aboard the station and collision with the Progress supply vessel in 1997. The fire, caused by the malfunction of a backup solid-fuel oxygen generator (SFOG), burned for, according to various sources, between 90 seconds and 14 minutes, and produced large amounts of toxic smoke that filled the station for around 45 minutes. This forced the crew to don respirators, but some of the respirator masks initially worn were broken. Fire extinguishers mounted on

8496-694: The first GaAs microprocessors was developed in the early 1980s by the RCA Corporation and was considered for the Star Wars program of the United States Department of Defense . These processors were several times faster and several orders of magnitude more radiation resistant than their silicon counterparts, but were more expensive. Other GaAs processors were implemented by the supercomputer vendors Cray Computer Corporation, Convex , and Alliant in an attempt to stay ahead of

8614-529: The first docking between an American Space Shuttle and the station. On June 29, Atlantis successfully docked with Mir , becoming the first US spacecraft to dock with a Russian spacecraft since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Atlantis delivered cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin , who would form the expedition EO-19 crew, and retrieved astronaut Norman Thagard and cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov of

8732-531: The flight of Atlantis on STS-79 , which launched on September 16. STS-79 was the first Shuttle mission to carry a double Spacehab module. More than 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) of supplies were transferred to Mir , including water generated by Atlantis 's fuel cells , and experiments that included investigations into superconductors , cartilage development, and other biology studies. About 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of experiment samples and equipment were also transferred back from Mir to Atlantis , making

8850-441: The flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-89 . The mission delivered cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov to Mir and replaced David Wolf with Andy Thomas , following Wolf's 119-day Increment. During his Increment, the last of the program, Thomas worked on 27 science investigations into areas of advanced technology, Earth sciences , human life sciences, microgravity research, and ISS risk mitigation. His stay on Mir , considered

8968-407: The following six essential factors: For this purpose an optical fiber tip of an optical fiber temperature sensor is equipped with a gallium arsenide crystal. Starting at a light wavelength of 850 nm GaAs becomes optically translucent. Since the spectral position of the band gap is temperature dependent, it shifts about 0.4 nm/K. The measurement device contains a light source and a device for

9086-656: The former adversaries together with the Shuttle– Mir Program, which would pave the way to the International Space Station , a joint project with several international partners. In June 1992, American President George H. W. Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin agreed to co-operate on space exploration by signing the Agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation Concerning Cooperation in

9204-458: The highest-efficiency single-junction solar cell at 29.1% (as of 2019). This high efficiency is attributed to the extreme high quality GaAs epitaxial growth, surface passivation by the AlGaAs, and the promotion of photon recycling by the thin film design. GaAs-based photovoltaics are also responsible for the highest efficiency (as of 2022) of conversion of light to electricity, as researchers from

9322-554: The immune systems of rats in orbit, and the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth package, which is attempting to grow large, well- ordered protein crystals so that their structures can be more easily studied. The crew sleep period then began at 6:10 pm EST. At 11:30 UTC on February 5, 1994, Discovery inadvertently flew through a cloud of wastewater ice crystals. Flight controllers determined that approximately one tablespoon of wastewater leaked out of

9440-458: The launch of Chinese Tiangong-1 space laboratory on 29 September 2011. Mir 's legacy lives on in the station, bringing together five space agencies in the cause of exploration and allowing those space agencies to prepare for their next leap into space, to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Criticism of the program was primarily concerned with the safety of the aging Mir , particularly following

9558-547: The main logic families used were: Some electronic properties of gallium arsenide are superior to those of silicon . It has a higher saturated electron velocity and higher electron mobility , allowing gallium arsenide transistors to function at frequencies in excess of 250 GHz. GaAs devices are relatively insensitive to overheating, owing to their wider energy band gap, and they also tend to create less noise (disturbance in an electrical signal) in electronic circuits than silicon devices, especially at high frequencies. This

9676-400: The majority of their science aboard the station. These missions allowed NASA and Roscosmos to learn a great deal about how best to work with international partners in space and how to minimize the risks associated with assembling a large space station in orbit, as would have to be done with the ISS. The project also served as a political ruse on the part of the American government, providing

9794-581: The mission was the Wake Shield Facility (or WSF), a device designed to generate new semiconductor films for advanced electronics. The WSF was flown at the end of Discovery 's robotic arm over the course of the flight. During the mission, the astronauts aboard Discovery also carried out various experiments aboard the Spacehab module in the Orbiter's payload bay, and took part in a live bi-directional audio and downlink video hookup between themselves and

9912-416: The module and closed Spektr 's hatch in order to prevent the need to abandon the station in their Soyuz lifeboat. Their efforts stabilized the station's air pressure, whilst the pressure in Spektr , containing many of Foale's experiments and personal effects, dropped to a vacuum. Fortunately, food, water and other vital supplies were stored in other modules, and salvage and replanning effort by Foale and

10030-475: The pair affixed a 121-pound (55 kg) Solar Array Cap to the Docking Module , for a future attempt by crew members to seal off the leak in Spektr 's hull. The mission returned Foale to Earth, along with samples, hardware, and an old Elektron oxygen generator, and dropped Wolf off on the Station ready for his 128-day Increment. Wolf had originally been scheduled to be the final Mir astronaut, but

10148-717: The payload bay Getaway Special (GAS) canisters. SPACEHAB module experiments that were activated included the Organic Separations payload, which is designed to investigate cell separation techniques for possible pharmaceutical and biotechnology processing, and the Equipment for Controlled Liquid Phase Sintering Experiment (ECLiPSE) package, a furnace designed to explore the possibilities of creating stronger, lighter and more durable metals for use in bearings, cutting tools and electronics. SPACEHAB middeck experiments that were activated included Immune-1, which will look at

10266-416: The program. The next flight to Mir , STS-86 , brought Increment astronaut David Wolf to the station. STS-86 performed the seventh Shuttle– Mir docking, the last of 1997. During Atlantis 's stay crew members Titov and Parazynski conducted the first joint US–Russian extravehicular activity during a Shuttle mission, and the first in which a Russian wore a US spacesuit. During the five-hour spacewalk,

10384-454: The same lattice constant , the layers have very little induced strain , which allows them to be grown almost arbitrarily thick. This allows extremely high performance and high electron mobility HEMT transistors and other quantum well devices. GaAs is used for monolithic radar power amplifiers (but GaN can be less susceptible to heat damage). Silicon has three major advantages over GaAs for integrated circuit manufacture. First, silicon

10502-485: The same strategy has been described in a patent relating to processing scrap components containing GaAs where the Ga is complexed with a hydroxamic acid ("HA"), for example: This reaction produces arsenic acid . GaAs can be used for various transistor types: The HBT can be used in integrated injection logic (I L). The earliest GaAs logic gate used Buffered FET Logic (BFL). From c.  1975 to 1995

10620-426: The science community minimized the loss of research data and capability. In an effort to restore some of the power and systems lost following the isolation of Spektr and to attempt to locate the leak, Mir 's new commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov carried out a salvage operation later in the mission. They entered the empty module during a so-called "IVA" spacewalk, inspecting

10738-533: The smoothest of the entire Phase One program, featured weekly "Letters from the Outpost" from Thomas and passed two milestones for length of spaceflight—815 consecutive days in space by American astronauts since the launch of Shannon Lucid on the STS-76 mission in March 1996, and 907 days of Mir occupancy by American astronauts dating back to Norman Thagard's trip to Mir in March 1995. Thomas returned to Earth on

10856-548: The spacecraft separated at 12:01 p.m. EDT that day. With the landing of Discovery on June 12, 1998, the Phase One program concluded. Techniques and equipment developed during the program assisted the development of Phase Two: initial assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). The arrival of the Destiny Laboratory Module in 2001 marked the end of Phase Two and the start of Phase Three,

10974-527: The spectral detection of the band gap. With the changing of the band gap, (0.4 nm/K) an algorithm calculates the temperature (all 250 ms). GaAs may have applications in spintronics as it can be used instead of platinum in spin-charge converters and may be more tunable. The environment, health and safety aspects of gallium arsenide sources (such as trimethylgallium and arsine ) and industrial hygiene monitoring studies of metalorganic precursors have been reported. California lists gallium arsenide as

11092-475: The station, long-duration flights aboard Mir by American astronauts. The seven astronauts who took part in the Increments, Norman Thagard , Shannon Lucid , John Blaha , Jerry Linenger , Michael Foale , David Wolf and Andrew Thomas , were each flown in turn to Star City , Russia , to undergo training in various aspects of the operation of Mir and the Soyuz spacecraft used for transport to and from

11210-542: The station. During his Increment, Linenger became the first American to conduct a spacewalk from a foreign space station and the first to test the Russian-built Orlan-M spacesuit alongside Russian cosmonaut Vasili Tsibliyev . All three crewmembers of expedition EO-23 performed a "fly-around" in the Soyuz spacecraft, first undocking from one docking port of the station, then manually flying to and redocking

11328-427: The station. The Docking Module was designed to provide more clearance for Shuttles in order to prevent any collisions with Mir 's solar arrays during docking, a problem which had been overcome during STS-71 by relocating the station's Kristall module to a different location on the station. The module, attached to Kristall 's docking port, prevented the need for this procedure on further missions. During

11446-490: The three cosmonauts on board Mir , Valeri Polyakov , Viktor Afanasyev and Yury Usachev (flying Mir expeditions LD-4 and EO-15). 1995 began with the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on February 3. Discovery's mission, STS-63 , was the second Space Shuttle flight in the program and the first flight of the shuttle with a female pilot, Eileen Collins . Referred to as the "near- Mir " mission,

11564-461: The total transfer the most extensive yet. This, the fourth docking, also saw John Blaha transferring onto Mir to take his place as resident Increment astronaut. His stay on the station improved operations in several areas, including transfer procedures for a docked space shuttle, "hand-over" procedures for long-duration American crew members and "Ham" amateur radio communications. Two spacewalks were carried out during his time aboard. Their aim

11682-425: The two nations, including the first American astronaut to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, the largest spacecraft ever to have been assembled at that time in history, and the first American spacewalk using a Russian Orlan spacesuit . The program was marred by various concerns, notably the safety of Mir following a fire, a Russian spacecraft colliding with Spektr rendering it uninhabitable, financial issues with

11800-584: The two spacecraft to that date). The STS-81 crew also tested the Shuttle Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (TVIS), designed for use in the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. The shuttle's small vernier jet thrusters were fired during the mated operations to gather engineering data for "reboosting" the ISS. After undocking, Atlantis performed a fly-around of Mir , leaving Linenger aboard

11918-399: The two spacecraft, along with water, experiment samples, supplies and hardware. One of the first items transferred to Mir was an Elektron oxygen-generating unit. Atlantis was stopped three times while backing away during the undocking sequence on May 21. The aim was to collect data from a European sensor device designed for future rendezvous of ESA 's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) with

12036-416: The underlying silicon. SiO 2 is not only a good insulator (with a band gap of 8.9 eV ), but the Si-SiO 2 interface can be easily engineered to have excellent electrical properties, most importantly low density of interface states. GaAs does not have a native oxide, does not easily support a stable adherent insulating layer, and does not possess the dielectric strength or surface passivating qualities of

12154-497: The walls of the modules were immovable. The fire occurred during a crew rotation, and as such there were six men aboard the station rather than the usual three. Access to one of the docked Soyuz lifeboats was blocked, which would have prevented escape by half of the crew. A similar incident had occurred on an earlier Mir expedition, although in that case the SFOG burned for only a few seconds. Gallium arsenide Gallium arsenide

12272-435: Was Space Transportation System (STS) , taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. In addition to the prototype, whose completion was cancelled, five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from

12390-568: Was anticipated to visit Mir , but its program was canceled after its first uncrewed spaceflight. Visiting US Space Shuttles used an Androgynous Peripheral Attach System docking collar originally designed for Buran, mounted on a bracket originally designed for use with the American Space Station Freedom . With the Space Shuttle docked to Mir , the temporary enlargements of living and working areas amounted to

12508-477: Was chosen to go on the Increment instead of astronaut Wendy Lawrence . Lawrence was deemed ineligible for flight because of a change in Russian requirements after the Progress supply vehicle collision. The new rules required that all Mir crew members should be trained and ready for spacewalks, but a Russian spacesuit could not be prepared for Lawrence in time for launch. The final year of Phase One began with

12626-453: Was constructed between 1986 and 1996 and was the world's first modular space station. It was the first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and previously held the record for longest continuous human presence in space, at eight days short of ten years. Mir 's purpose was to provide a large and habitable scientific laboratory in space, and, through a number of collaborations, including Intercosmos and Shuttle– Mir ,

12744-451: Was first synthesized and studied by Victor Goldschmidt and his co-partner Donder Vwishuna in 1926 by passing arsenic vapors mixed with hydrogen over gallium(III) oxide at 600 °C. The semiconductor properties of GaAs and other III-V compounds were patented by Heinrich Welker at Siemens-Schuckert in 1951 and described in a 1952 publication. Commercial production of its monocrystals commenced in 1954, and more studies followed in

12862-537: Was followed during the course of the project by nine Shuttle– Mir docking missions, from STS-71 to STS-91 . The Shuttle rotated crews and delivered supplies, and one mission, STS-74 , carried a docking module and a pair of solar arrays to Mir . Various scientific experiments were also conducted, both on shuttle flights and long-term aboard the station. The project also saw the launch of two new modules, Spektr and Priroda , to Mir , which were used by American astronauts as living quarters and laboratories to conduct

12980-506: Was launched aboard a Proton rocket and docked to Mir . Spektr carried more than 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of research equipment from America and other nations. The expedition's crew returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis following the first Shuttle– Mir docking during mission STS-71 . The primary objectives of STS-71, launched on June 27, called for the Space Shuttle Atlantis to rendezvous and perform

13098-557: Was made internationally accessible to cosmonauts and astronauts of many different countries. The station existed until March 23, 2001, at which point it was deliberately deorbited, and broke apart during atmospheric re-entry. Mir was based upon the Salyut series of space stations previously launched by the Soviet Union (seven Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971), and was mainly serviced by Russian-crewed Soyuz spacecraft and Progress cargo ships. The Buran space shuttle

13216-593: Was scheduled for 19:50 UTC. The WSF experiment was brought to an end and a telemetry problem with the facility prevented the growth of the 6th and final thin film on board WSF. Five other thin films were grown throughout the mission before Wake Shield Facility was berthed. WSF closeout was completed by 13:10 UTC. At 12:58 UTC, commander Charles F. Bolden reported to the ground that one of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) blankets around Discovery ' s forward RCS thruster below Bolden's cabin window

13334-457: Was slightly peeled back. Jan Davis was directed to halt her power down and stowage of the Remote Manipulator System (Canadarm) and use the arm to perform a camera survey of the front left side of the orbiter. At 19:20 UTC, the BREMSAT satellite momentum wheel was spun up and BREMSAT was ejected into space at 19:23 UTC at the rate of 1 m/s (3.3 ft/s). On Flight Day 8 (February 10, 1994),

13452-532: Was the first shuttle flight of that year, the first flight of a Russian cosmonaut , Sergei Krikalev , aboard the American shuttle, and marked the start of increased cooperation in space for the two nations, 37 years after the Space Race began. Part of an international agreement on human space flight, the mission was the second flight of the Spacehab pressurized module and marked the hundredth " Getaway Special " payload to fly in space. The primary payload for

13570-510: Was the oldest and heaviest of the fleet, it was not suited for efficient operations at Mir 's (and later the ISS's ) 51.6-degree inclination – Columbia was therefore not retrofitted with the necessary external airlock and Orbital Docking System, and never flew to a space station. Phase One of the Shuttle– Mir program began on February 3, 1994, with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on its 18th mission, STS-60 . The eight-day mission

13688-430: Was the third docking mission to Mir , which also demonstrated logistics capabilities through deployment of a Spacehab module, and placed experiment packages aboard Mir 's docking module, which marked the first spacewalk which occurred around docked vehicles. The spacewalks, carried out from Atlantis 's crew cabin, provided valuable experience for astronauts in order to prepare for later assembly missions to

13806-595: Was to remove electrical power connectors from a 12-year-old solar power array on the base block and reconnect the cables to the more efficient new solar power arrays. In all, Blaha spent four months with the Mir-22 cosmonaut crew conducting material science , fluid science , and life science research, before returning to Earth the next year aboard Atlantis on STS-81 . In 1997 STS-81 replaced Increment astronaut John Blaha with Jerry Linenger , after Blaha's 118-day stay aboard Mir . During this fifth shuttle docking,

13924-552: Was traced to the Headset Interface Unit (HIU) and that unit was swapped with a flight spare. The payload bay doors were opened and around 13:45 UTC the crew was given a go for on-orbit operations. Shortly after reaching orbit, the STS-60 crew began checking Discovery ' s systems and activating the commercially developed SPACEHAB laboratory module and several of its experiments. The crew also activated one group of

#469530