* MIR NEWS October 97 *

=======================

The current Mir crew is still very busy working and experimenting in their

Lab in space.  American Astronaut David Wolf, who is currently living on

board the Russian Mir complex, said he is working 14-16 hours a day.

Judging by the tone in his voice, he is enjoying every minute of this stay.

During an Amateur Radio contact with David Wolf, Miles Mann, WF1F asked

when he thought he could put the Amateur Radio 2-meter station back on the

air.  David said he had 6 items on this top priority list, and Amateur Radio

was currently number 6.  Miles assured David that everyone on earth

understands his current work load, and that the Amateur Radio experiment

(Personal Message System, PMS) is a low priority experiment.  David said

he would like to move the PMS experiment higher on this list of things to

do.  He said he is planning on reading the existing 40 mail messages waiting

for him when he gets some free time.  He is also planning on putting out

a mail message to "ALL" on the PMS when he gets some free time.



In the mean time, the PMS 2-meter station has been turned off.  The small

13k mailbox is completely full.  The amount of time required by the crew

to read, reply and delete the daily load of mail is approximately 30 to 60

minutes per day, just to keep the mailbox open for the public.  At the

present time, the crew's work load is just too heavy to support this type

of time investment towards a non-essential project.



There are a few inconsiderate Amateur Radio stations who feel the crew's

primary job is to read and reply to packet mail all day long.  Most of us

understand this is not the crew's job.



The SAFEX II 70 cm repeater is still turned off.  It is not known when the

this experiment will be turned back on, but we do know the crew is still

trying to build up power reserves in the batteries of the space station.

The space station is now getting power from all solar panels, except the

one that was damaged by the Progress truck collision.



The crew performed an internal space walk last week.  The crew repaired 5

data cables, and attached them to the special air tight feed through

connectors on the new Specter hatch.  (Experiment: Put on your thickest

snow gloves and winter jacket.  Then try to install a new coax connector on

a cable.  This is what is was like trying to repair the data cables on Mir.)

The crew now can remotely steer two more of the Spectr module solar panels.

An external space walk is planned for some time between October 30 and

November 1.  There are three more Space walks planned this year.



[Info via Miles Mann, WF1F]