Quantum 1

• Weight: 11,050 kg.
• Length: 5.8 m.
• Maximum diameter: 4.15 m.
• Volume (under atmospheric pressure): 40 m³.

The "Quantum" module was the first experimental version of the 37K type modules with the returned TCS device ( Supply transport ship ), it was originally planned to dock it to the Salyut-7 orbital station. The development of the device was started on September 19, 1979 . The module management system was developed by Kharkov-based NPO Elektropribor .

Initially, it was planned to create eight 37K devices.

• One experimental 37KE (using a functional cargo block (FGB) from a supply supply vehicle developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as an engine) for docking to Salyut-7 station.
• Four 37KS modules for Mir station. It was planned to deliver these modules to the station and dock with the new, lighter FGB.
• Three 37KB modules were planned to be delivered in the cargo compartment of the Buran orbital space shuttle . These modules could remain docked to the Buran, or they could be docked to the Mir station or Mir-2 by the Buran manipulator.

The 37KE device was called the "Quantum" and was equipped with instruments for astrophysical research. The apparatus used the control system from the Salyut-5B station and the gyro -orientation system developed for the Almaz orbital station. Modification of the module did not have time to complete by the end of the existence of the Salyut-7 orbital station, so they decided to dock it to the Mir station. However, by that time it was planned that the orbit of the Mir station would have an inclination of 65 °, and the Proton launch vehicle , which was planned to launch the Quantum, could not deliver a heavy vehicle into such an orbit. In January 1985, the inclination angle of the orbit of the World was changed to 51.6 °, which made it possible to deliver the Quantum to the station with the Proton rocket. However, it was now planned that the Quantum would be docked to the rear docking port of Mira, which required additional cables to transfer rocket fuel from the Progress cargo ship to the station. This once again increased the take-off weight of the "Quantum", which led to the need to reduce the fuel supply at the functional cargo block. Despite this, the Quantum take-off weight was 22.8 tons, and thus the Quantum was the heaviest payload ever launched with the Proton launch vehicle (the Shuttle displayed a maximum load of 22,753 kg - a space telescope Chandra ).

"Quantum" and its functional cargo block was launched on March 31, 1987 . During the launch, the Soyuz TM-2 spacecraft was already docked to the station. On April 2 and 5, the functional cargo block carried out the main maneuvers to dock to the Mir station. The first docking attempt was unsuccessful - approximately 200 m from the station , the Igla docking system lost bearing and the module passed 10 meters from the station. The Quantum module and functional cargo block drifted 400 km before the FGB engines were used to return it. The second attempt at primary docking was successfully completed on April 9, 1987. However, the final, hard docking of the module failed. In this configuration, it was impossible to correct the orientation of the station under the threat of damage. To clarify the situation on April 11, the station’s crew made spacewalks. It turned out that the station's debris located next to the docking block interfered with the final hard docking. After the garbage was removed, the “Quantum” was finally docked to the FGB station ^[1] after undocking from the “Quantum” (April 12), it was returned to Earth.

The "Quantum" module consisted of two compartments suitable for crew work, and one hardware compartment. The quantum had six gyrodynes , which could be used to reorient the station without using correction engines, and also contained some life support systems for astronauts, such as an oxygen generator and equipment for removing carbon dioxide from the station’s air. An additional solar battery was delivered to Kvant, which was subsequently (in June 1987) installed on the main module of the station. The complex of scientific equipment of the module included the so-called RENTGEN astrophysical observatory. This observatory included several tools.

TTM

The shadow mask telescope (TTM), the English version of the name COMIS / Coded Mask Imaging Spectrometer , is a wide-angle camera that uses an encoding mask to determine the position of sources as an input aperture. The TTM telescope was developed in collaboration with the Space Research Laboratory in Utrecht (Netherlands) ^[2] and the School of Physics and Space Research of the University of Birmingham (Great Britain). The TTM telescope was the world's first X-ray orbital telescope to use the coding aperture principle for imaging. The field of view of the telescope is 15 × 15 degrees, the angular resolution of about 2 angular minutes. The working range of the telescope is 2-30 keV , the energy resolution, determined by the properties of the position-sensitive proportional counter used to detect photons, is about 20% at an energy of 6 keV. The detector was filled with a mixture of xenon (95%) and carbon dioxide (5%) under a pressure of 1 atm . The working area of ​​the detector was 540 cm².

HEXE

The HEXE spectrometer was developed by the Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics Max Planck . The spectrometer consisted of four NaI (Tl) and CsI (Tl) detectors and operating on the basis of the phoswich detector . The field of view of the instrument was limited by collimators measuring 1.5 × 1.5 degrees (width at half maximum). Each of the 4 identical HEXTE detectors had an effective area of ​​about 200 square centimeters. The working energy range of the instrument is 15-200 keV. In this spectral range, of great importance is the ability to reliably take into account the contribution of the instrumental background, which was done using the principle of a “swinging” collimator. The instrument detectors looked at the source for some time, after which they turned away by 2.5 degrees for several minutes and looked at the “clear” sky, which actually meant measuring the instrumental background of the detector. Lead , tin and copper coatings were used as passive protection on the side and back of the instrument.

Siren2

The gas scintillation proportional spectrometer developed at ESA was designed to obtain spectra with an energy resolution much higher than that of the gas meter of the TTM telescope. The field of view of the instrument was limited by a 3 degree collimator. The working energy range is 2-100 keV. The effective area is about 300 cm ² . The stability of the energy scale was ensured by tracking a set of calibration emission lines. Unfortunately, almost at the very beginning of the observatory, the instrument failed.

Pulsar X-1

The Pulsar X-1 complex consisted of two spectrometers: Spectrum and Ira. The Spectrum spectrometer was a complex of 4 identical detectors (effective area 314 cm ² ) made of a NaI crystal with recording photomultipliers, surrounded by active anti-coincidence protection from CsI. The operating energy range of the spectrometer is 20-800 keV. The field of view was limited by a 3 × 3 degree collimator. The Ira spectrometer was designed to detect gamma-ray bursts . The recording part was completely identical to the Spectrum spectrometer, except that its field of view was not limited by the collimator.

Glazar

The Glazar ultraviolet telescope, developed at the Granit Special Design Bureau (Armenia) in collaboration with the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory , was designed to scan the sky at a wavelength of 1600 angstroms in order to search for galaxies and quasars (a combination of these two words is reflected in the name of the telescope) having excess in the ultraviolet range. The discovered objects were then planned to be examined in more detail with other tools. In addition, it was expected that the telescope would measure the ultraviolet flux of a number of well-known sources in our Galaxy and beyond.

The telescope was built according to the Ritchie-Chretien scheme and had a field of view of 1.3 degrees with an angle resolution of about 20 arc seconds. The focal length of the telescope is 1.7 m, the diameter of the main mirror is 40 cm. A microchannel plate placed in the focal plane of the telescope shifts the image from ultraviolet to the visible range, where it was recorded on a regular film (Kodak 103a-G). Two lithium fluoride correction lenses, a cesium iodide cathode, a magnesium iodide cathode window, and a calcium fluoride interference filter limited the transmission of the telescope optical system to a wavelength range of 250 angstroms around a wavelength of 1640 angstroms. The telescope was mounted on a platform on the outside of the Quantum module. A pair of star sensors of the telescope was used to fix its field of view in two axes, another pair of star sensors inclined at 41 and 45 degrees relative to the optical axis of the telescope served to prevent its rotation around the axis. The observations were carried out at a time when the Mir station was in the shadow of the Earth, typically the length of such observations was 20-30 minutes. The telescope could work both in automatic mode and in manual control mode. After the cassette with the film ended, the astronauts replaced it with a new one, using the transfer chamber. Each cassette contained about 8 m of film, making it possible to take more than 150 photographs. Test observations of the telescope were carried out in June - July 1987. Observations showed that the sensitivity of the telescope is less than expected, as a result of which surveys of the entire sky were not conducted. The main mode of operation of the telescope was observations of star clusters of the OB type .

In 1990, the telescope was supplemented with the ultraviolet telescope Glazar-2 ^[3] .

Svetlana

A module containing tools for biological research.

At the end of 1987, problems were discovered with the TTM telescope. The telescope detector was switched off from time to time, and the detector high voltage generator began to fail. At the request of Soviet, Danish and British scientists, it was decided to repair the telescope using the forces of the orbital team. At the end of June 1988, a spare detector was delivered to the station. In the second half of 1988, the TTM telescope detector was replaced with a new one during two orbits of the orbital crew. In the first astronaut exit (June 30), it was not possible to replace the detector due to the difficulty of removing the telescope mounts. Re-entry into space to replace the detector was made on October 20, 1988. During this release, the Orlan-DMA spacesuit was first used.

In January 1991, a support structure was originally installed on the Quantum module, originally designed to mount solar panels. In July 1991, the crew of the station, as a result of four spacewalks, installed the Sophora farm , which was intended to install an additional correction engine, as well as for instruments outside the station building. To improve the controllability of the orbital station, a correction engine (delivered by the Progress M-14 cargo ship) was installed on the Sophor farm in September 1992. In September 1993, the Rapana farm was installed on the Quantum module. The installation of the farm was experimental in order to test possible work at the planned Mir-2 station. Subsequently, various tools were installed on the Rapana farm. May 22, 1995 on "Quantum" one of the solar panels of the Crystal module was reinstalled. In May 1996, an additional solar battery was delivered to Kvant, delivered with the docking module of Mir station. In June 1996, the Rapana farm was extended. In November 1997, the old solar panels installed on the Quantum from the Crystal module were removed and a new complex of solar panels was replaced in their place. In April 1998, the old correction engine, which stood on the Sophora farm, was replaced with a new one.

Among the most important scientific discoveries and achievements obtained using observations on the Quantum module, it should be noted:

• The discovery of hard X-rays from supernova SN 1987A . The first and only hitherto wideband (~ 1–1000 keV) emission spectra of the supernova SN1987a ^[4] .
• Hard X-ray / gamma-ray emission of X-ray novae was first discovered, extending to energies above 200-300 keV, which made it possible to indicate the influence of non-thermal processes on the formation of at least part of the radiation of accreting black holes ^{[5] [6]} .
• Broadband spectra of a number of interesting x-ray novae ^[7] , pulsars ^[8] were obtained.
• Images of the region of the center of the Galaxy in a wide range of energies ^[9] .
• The discovery of a number of accreting neutron stars and black holes. Due to the fact that the tools of the X-ray Observatory worked only a small fraction of the time, the speed of discoveries of new accreting black holes and neutron stars reached one discovery in 3 days of observation. Among open sources, for example, mention can be made of a neutron star rotating at a frequency of 524 Hz (this frequency corresponds to the “To” note of the second octave).

In general, according to the results of observations of the devices of the quantum astrophysical module, more than 100 works were published. In the scientific literature there are more than 800 works that mention the results of observations of the Mir-Quantum Observatory ^[10] .

• TTM / COMIS telescope ( unopened ) (link not available) . Archived November 12, 2004.
• Russian Space Web
• Encyclopedia Astronautica (неопр.) (недоступная ссылка) . Архивировано 15 октября 2008 года.
• Мир-Квант на сайте Центра косм.полётов им. Годдарда
• Kvant-1
• СТЫКОВКА-ЭТО ВСЕГДА СОБЫТИЕ

• Список космических аппаратов с рентгеновскими и гамма-детекторами на борту