Russian Cosmonaut Proposes To Create "Garland" Of Modules In Space

Cosmonaut and pilot Alexey Leonov who had been the first Earth inhabitant to fly into the outer space said that it is expedient to create a garland of separate automatic technological modules around the International Space Station (ISS). Leonov thinks that the creation of the ISS is a bit like the creation of the firmer Russian orbital station "Mir". Of course, the ISS is more spacious and comfortable, he said, but the station "does not contribute anything new" to the idea and era of exploring space. The ISS comprises modules where cosmonauts live and ones where they conduct scientific experiments. Leonov thinks that such a combination of working and living rooms for cosmonauts in one place has its serious negative consequences. People's presence near unique equipment meant for experiments under conditions of "pure weightlessness" and "absence of vibrations" greatly reduces experiment purity, stressed the Russian cosmonaut. "Imagine 10 cosmonauts doing morning exercises for an hour and running the running-track daily making fragile modules of the station shudder", Leonov says. That is why, the cosmonaut thinks, it would be expedient to create a garland of separate automatic technological modules around the ISS, where experiments would be conducted twenty-four hours. Cosmonauts should live on the ISS and visit the modules from time to time taking experiments' products. Such conditions are necessary for conducting medical and biological tests and for getting new materials for electronics, noted the cosmonaut.