Soviet Researchers Experienced Hell on Earth For Gagarin's and Leonov's Fame
When on March 15, 1965, the crew of Belyaev and Leonov landed in the snowy taiga and it took 48 hours to find them, it was decided to test volunteers in extreme places where they would strive to survive. Once, Gridunov spent 13 hours in ice cold water, testing a wetsuit. The best expert in extreme trips was Alec Mnatsikanyan, a doctor and sky diver, survival expert. He traveled to taiga, desert, the high north, and then provided recommendations to spacemen on how to efficiently use water in the desert, what to do in the polar tundra to warm up, etc.
Another remarkable experiment was modeling a trip to the Moon in an emergency situation. Three testers wearing pressure suits were placed in compression chambers. In was very hot inside the suits, and the testers had to breath pure oxygen, while liquid food was supplied via tubes. There were not allowed to have bowel movements under the experiment. The trip to the Moon and back takes 7 days. Two testers “fell out of the race” on the second day. Naturally, the one left was John Gridunov. “It was so hot that I was sitting in a puddle of my own sweat. I lost sense of time. Once during feeding I was given an extra splash of cottage cheese and it smeared all over my helmet. It was so hot that the cottage cheese spoiled in a few hours and for several days I had to breathe a horrible stench. Another time they shut off the air supply. It turned out it was another emergency situation. But I managed to survive in there for 8 days instead of 7.”
“We appealed to the government with a request to award him with a title of the Hero of Russia. The appeal was signed by Leonov, Popovich, and other respectable people, including spacemen and academics. For some reason, we received a rejection. But Gridunov has done so much for Russian space industry,” says Ponomarenko. He is also concerned about the future of his alma mater. The Institute is planned for relocation. It means that it would take years to put the stands and equipment back together. It means that training of pilots and testing of new equipment will be suspended. “It will be catastrophic for the military sector and deadly for the Institute,” Ponomarenko is convinced. Being the person who imitated catastrophes in the lab, he is now eager to prevent a real one.
