MIR (submersible)

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MIR (Russian: "Мир") is a self-propelled Deep Submergence Vehicle. The project was initially developed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences along with Design Bureau Lazurith. Later two vehicles were ordered from Finland. The MIR 1 and MIR 2, delivered in 1987, were designed and built by the Finnish company Rauma-Repola's Oceanics subsidiary.

Contents 1 Characteristics 2 Finnish-Soviet co-operation 3 Notable expeditions 3.1 Titanic and Bismarck filming 3.2 2007 North Pole submersion 3.2.1 Mistaken controversy 4 Notable pilots 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Characteristics

The vessels are designed to be used for scientific research and for submarine rescue operations. The carrier and command centre of MIR submersibles is the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. Currently the two MIRs are operated by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The MIR submersibles can dive to a maximum depth of 6000 metres (19,680 feet). This makes them two of only five manned submersibles in the world that can dive beyond 3,000m (9,840 feet), the others being the US submersible Alvin, the Japanese owned Shinkai and the French owned Nautile. Up to 98% of the world’s oceans are under 6 km deep. Each of the five has a three-man crew.

The cockpit of MIR is a 5 cm thick sphere made from a combination of nickel and steel, with an inner diameter of 2.1 m. The total length of the vessel is 7.8 m and the weight 18.6 tons.

Air pressure inside the cabin remains at a constant one atmosphere: the air is recycled in a manner similar to that used on board spacecraft, with lithium hydroxide scrubbers removing accumulated carbon dioxide.

Originally the hydraulic manipulators were covered by a helmet-like retractable see-through visor, but these were removed in a major overhaul in 1994

[edit] Finnish-Soviet co-operation

Production of the two MIRs was a prime example of Finnish-Soviet economic and technical co-operation during the Cold War. Bids from Canada, France and Sweden to construct the submarines had been retracted most likely due to political pressure. In a later interview with STT the then head of department at Rauma-Repola Peter Laxell said he believed that "Finland got the permit to deliver the crafts to the Soviets on the basis that the CoCom officials in the USA believed the project would be a failure. [...] Once it became clear to them we actually had accomplished the engineering feat there was a huge uproar about how such technology could be sold to the Soviets, enough for many visits to the Pentagon.". ^[1]

The level of technology flowing into the Soviet Union raised concern in the U.S. and Rauma-Repola was privately threatened with economic sanctions. For example, one concern of the Pentagon was the possibility that the Soviet Union would manufacture a pioneer submarine fleet that could clear the ocean floor of U.S. deep sea listening equipment.^[2] With the possibility of losing its lucrative off-shore oil platforms market Rauma-Repola yielded, and submarine development ceased in Finland. One project that was abandoned was the development of a fuel cell based air-independent propulsion system.

The 122 meters long support vessel R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh was also built in Finland, at the Hollming shipyard in Rauma in 1980 (now Aker Finnyards).^[3]

[edit] Notable expeditions

[edit] Titanic and Bismarck filming

In the mid 1990s and early 2000s, MIR vehicles were used by American producer James Cameron to film the wreck of the RMS Titanic, resting at a depth of 3,821 metres, for his 1997 film Titanic and documentaries such as Ghosts of the Abyss, and to film the wreck of the Bismarck, resting at a depth of 4,700 metres, for his 2002 documentary film Expedition: Bismarck.

[edit] 2007 North Pole submersion

Main article: Arktika 2007

On August 2, 2007 Russia used the MIR submersibles to perform the first ever manned descent to the seabed under the Geographic North Pole, to a depth of 4.3 km, to scientifically research the region in relation to the 2001 Russian territorial claim.

Descents were carried out on August 2, 2007. The crew of MIR-1 was composed of the pilot Anatoly Sagalevich, Soviet and Russian polar explorer Arthur Chilingarov, and Vladimir Gruzdev. The crew of MIR-2 was international; it was composed of pilot Yevgeny Chernyaev of Russia, Mike McDowell of Australia and Frederik Paulsen of Sweden.^[4]

On the seabed, at a depth of 4261 metres, MIR-1 planted a one meter tall rust-proof Flag of Russia, made of titanium alloy at OKB "Fakel" in Kaliningrad,^[5] and left a time capsule, containing a message for future generations and a flag of United Russia.^[6] Soil and water samples of the seabed were taken during the mission^[5].

[edit] Mistaken controversy

A short time after the announcement was made, some tabloid newspapers tried to stir up controversy by claiming the footage was fake because some of the footage was from James Camerons movie Titanic. It turned out that Russian TV had use the footage, for which they hold copyright, as an illustration of the submarines in action. They had shown this hours before the Mirs had arrived, and they had specifically pointed out that this was from the movie Titanic. Reuters did not make this determination when they started spreading the story and used the pictures wrongly captioned. Reuters later apologized and issued a statement reading in part: "Reuters mistakenly identified this file footage as originating from the Arctic, and not the North Atlantic where the footage was shot." , they reposted the story with correct captions. Few major outlets mentioned this since the facts about the Russian submarines reaching the pole remained factual. ^[7][8]

[edit] Notable pilots

• Anatoly Sagalevich

[edit] See also

• Finnish Maritime Cluster
• Underwater gliders

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The MIR Submersibles - PDF brochure
• Mir submersible
• The Marvelous Mirs