SR 48(7) 8

Cover Story
Limited edition pen brought out in honour
of the fiftieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin
Launch of Vostok
that carried Gagarin
A
NNA Akimovna Takhtarov and her
granddaughter Rita were alone on
the freshly plowed field in the village
of Smelovka, then part of the Soviet Union.
Nothing special was there for them on that
day. It was 12th April 1960 and they were
engaged in their collective farm in the
serene air of inland beauty, with only a
cow grazing nearby adding to its inlay of
peasantry.
It was about quarter to 11 in the
morning, the Sun rather reluctantly blazing
its intaglios on the field. Suddenly they
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
The year 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the
historic flight into space by Yuri Gagarin—the first
man to take a peek into the mysteries of outer space.
Here’s a look at how he made it to the top.
N.S. ARUN KUMAR
were alerted by a loud noise from a
distance. Looking around they could not
understand what had happened. Anna
was about to return to her work when Rita
pulled her hand in bewilderment, pointing
to the sky. A man-like creature with his
head and body covered in white apparel
was seen coming down, in flying colours
of wind-blown parachute.
Rita was thinking of her first encounter
with an ET but Anna was urging her to leave
that place, when the falling creature
removed its head-cover and greeted in
Russian: “Hey, Don’t run away! I am one
among us!” They were startled and before
they could react they saw a tractor crossing
the field followed by a group of running
soldiers. The man from the tractor
introduced himself as Major Akhmed
Gasiyer and said: Good Morning. This is
Yuri Gagarin, our comrade and the first
man in space. You are the first to witness
him landing from his mission. The nation
will be proud of you!”
That moment of glory was not only for
them, but also for the whole world
because he was the first visitor from Earth
to the “other world” which he saw with a
8
beating heart! A new word had entered
the dictionary of the world – “cosmonaut!”
This year in 2011, the world of Space
Exploration is celebrating the 50 th
anniversary of this still yet unparalleled
achievement of mankind.
Gagarin’s leap above the Earth was
a great blow to American nationalism
following soon after the Soviet success with
Sputnik—the first man-made object
launched into space. It also helped USSR
to create the imagery of the most
advanced and progressive nation in the
world.
Farm Boy From Moscow
Gagarin was born on 9 March 1934 in a
village called Klushino, 100 miles west of
Moscow in the Smolensk region of Russia.
His Father Alexei Ivanovich was a farmer
working in a collective farm. Anna
Timofeyana, his mother was a milkmaid.
Gagarin was the third of four children,
Velentin and Boris, the brothers and Zoya,
the sister.
During the Second World War, the
German army occupied his village,
throwing his family out of their home and
THE
Cover Story
Yuri
Gagarin—
the space
hero
LEGACY OF
YURI GAGARIN
50TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST
MAN IN SPACE
abducted his brother and sister for slavery
in Nazi camps. Gagarin helped his parents
to dig a dugout and they lived there until
the war was over. But these struggles
captured much of his time and so he was
very poorly educated. Only after the war
he could become a regular school-going
boy and with the help of two volunteer
teachers he managed to give it a ‘dolphindive’.
Gagarin dreamt of becoming a
fighter pilot even from his childhood when
he saw a Russian fighter plane crash land
in a farm field near his home. It was with
bullet-ridden wings, just returning from the
battlefield. The pilots who emerged from
the plane made an elegant appearance,
quite impressive enough in their uniform
laden with medals and other adornments.
Moreover, one of his teachers at school
was also an ex-air force pilot who became
a great inspiration for young Gagarin. The
teacher helped him to seek the right
qualifications leading to the Pilot Training
Academy, opting the four-year study at
the technical High School in Saratov.
While there, he was offered a chance
to join the “Flying Club” at school, his dream
becoming true. He learned to fly a light
aircraft, taking his first solo flight in 1955. He
seemed to have an innate ability to handle
an aeroplane and a special skill to make
smooth landings. He also learned
parachuting there but his instructor Dmitry
Pavlovich Martyanov remembers him
clinging to the door of the plane, out of
fear, during his first jump. “Dont dither Yuri!
The girls are watching” – he had to say to
make Gagarin finally jump with his eyes
closed!
Let’s salute this Russian Icarus at the 50th anniversary of his great
achievement, opening a new vista to the world of space
that was never known before.
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Dmitry Martyanov was very fond of
Gagarin and he advised Yuri to join the
Military Aviation School at Orenburg. There
his training was to Fly MiG-15 planes. In
1957, Gagarin graduated with top honours
from there. The same day he also got
married to Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva
whom he met while in Orenburg.
Gagarin’s exceptional aviation skills
made him a fighter pilot at the Arctic Circle
where he was assigned as an experimental
aviator amidst the challenging weather
conditions. His first posting was in Luostari
Airbase in Murmansk Oblast close to the
Norwegian border. It was in light of the
magnificent Aurora Borealis that he made
his first flight.
By then, the Soviet Space Programme
was once again in media highlights, this
time for photographing the yet unseen far
side of the Moon. Khrushchev had already
stated that USSR’s next achievement would
be a manned mission to space. Gagarin
couldn’t wait any longer. He returned to
Moscow and submitted a request to be
considered for ‘cosmonaut’ training. The
authorities were shocked to read it
because rather than a delightful dream of
Krushchev, nothing in real sense was
envisaged or executed.
However, the day that followed
Gagarin’s application, two representatives
of the top-secret military unit known by
the codename ‘26266’ visited Gagarin’s
residence for discussing the matter.
Later, the 26266-unit became the
‘Cosmonauts Training Center’ established
by order of the Air Force Commander-inSCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover Story
Stamps
issued in
honour of
Yuri
Gagarin’s
historic flight
Chief in March 1960 with Colonel Yevgenly
Anatolyevich Karpov as its chief. There was
also an assistant to him who was designated
as the “Director” of the center, Lieutenant
General Nikolay Petrovich Kamanin.
The Making of a Cosmonaut
The cosmonaut selection was officially
based on two top-secret decrees issued
by the USSR Council of Ministers. The process
of selection had begun much before the
functioning of the Cosmonaut Training
Center. The cosmonaut candidates were
brought in groups to the Central Military
Scientific Research Aviation Hospital near
Moscow to undergo a battery of extensive
physical, psychological and medical
examinations. Initially there were 3,461
candidates, reduced to just 347 after the
first screening.
The physical parameters were a
height of 5 feet 6-7 inches (172-174 cm)
and body weight of 70-75 kilograms but
curiously enough Gagarin did get through
with a height of 5 feet 2 inches! Gagarin’s
professional suitability and volunteering
nature might have helped him beyond
other particularities, his biographers
comment. Criteria of moral and ethical
characteristics and psychological
particularities were also there, again
whittling the number of cosmonaut
candidates down to 206 and then to a
final list of 20.
The oldest among these was 35 and
the youngest 25 (Gherman Titov). Gagarin
was 26 with two others of the same age.
They were flown to the Cosmonaut Training
Center in the future “Star City” which was in
the middle of a vast emptiness in the
Eurasian steppe called Tiura-Tam. It was
named after a small railway station “which
was hard to reach by any means of
transport including camel and donkey,
“Gagarin’s Gazebo”
“Gagarin’s Gazebo” was the veranda of a secret building officially designated as “building zero” within the ‘Star
City’ where the first (informal) announcement of Gagarin being the “first man in space” was made. “Building zero”
was on the banks of River Syr Darya, which remained as the actual location of Baikonur Cosmodrome, though its
co-ordinates (46 0N, 63 0E) were a military secret for long.
Gherman Titov (left, the second person to orbit Earth) and Yuri Gagarin (right), 1962
Until 1970s, the Soviets erected plywood facades of a
Potemkin village about 250 miles from here, to create the
illusion of “Baikonur Cosmodrome”. On 10th April 1961, tables
were laid out on the veranda of the “building zero” and a
select group of 25 top officials gathered there, including six
future cosmonauts. Gagarin and GhermanTitov were among
them.
It was Chief Designer Sergey Korolev who spoke very
plainly: “We have six cosmonauts here… and it has been decided
that Gagarin will fly first… We wish you success, Yury
Alekseyerich!” And Gagarin’s reply-speech also was simple
but quite charming: “Yes, you have made the right choice!” –
but Gagarin states in his memoirs that upon hearing about
his selection, his wife’s response was “Why You?” and
Gagarin says he had to talk one full night to make her say,
“if you are sure of yourself, go, everything will be all right!”
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
10
Cover
Story
The boy who would one
day fly out into space
Gagarin dreamt
of becoming a
fighter pilot
from his childhood after
seeing a Russian fighter plane crash
with no water and lot of sand,” as described
by an engineer, “it was a place of
scorching heat and bone-chilling cold with
swarms of rats, lizards and scorpions as
numerous as KGB informants.” In those days
there were a dozen launch pads scattered
around the ‘cosmodrome’ but it was not
‘Baikonur’ as many have erroneously
referred to it, the latter now in Kazakhstan.
In the real sense, the cosmonauts
were treated as lab-rats subjecting each
of them to the widest possible number of
distractions probing the boundaries of
human endurance. The concocted
training regime consisted of physiologists,
psychologists, physicians of various
specializations and engineers. As one
cosmonaut remembers, “they seemed to
be testing the hypothesis that human body
and mind could adapt to any situation.”
One test was to solve difficult
mathematical equations while sitting in a
room where loudspeakers produced noise
at the extreme pitch. Another was the
‘Vibration Stand’, which could “not only
knock your soul out of you, but also the
stones from your kidney.” The most
dreaded device was the ‘Rotor’—a
centrifuge that simulated the effects of
extreme gravitational pull. It had the shape
of a spherical cage spun wildly along the
three axes at unimaginable speed (this
element of training was avoided after
Gagarin’s flight, apparently because it was
considered a torture!).
A testing time for human psyche was
the “publichnost odinochestva”, a facility
that allowed a person in isolation to be
viewed in every possible way whereas the
‘captive’ couldn’t see the watchers. The
isolation chamber prevented every sound
from the outside except for some
directions from the watchers that
appeared in the form of blinking of
coloured bulbs or codes. The cosmonaut
in the chamber was not allowed to
communicate through sound, but through
some buttons upon a console that were
assigned for specific purposes.
Gagarin was in isolation chamber
from July 26 to August 5. Then he entered
the ‘Heat Chamber’ where the inmates
were subjected to extremes of
temperature which was reflected back
again and again from the walls coated
with metal plates. Humidity also was
increased and this ordeal lasted from 30
minutes to 3 hours or until the cosmonaut
said he could not endure it anymore,
though such reluctance was not favoured
by the trainers. The last part of the training
was parachute-jumping which was
performed from a height of nearly 4
kilometers, during day and night.
The Final Two
Eventually, after the entire set of training
schedules, it became a tale of two
cosmonauts – Gagarin and Gherman Titov.
They were the final sort from the cream of
six selected by the Director Nikolay
Kamanin by the end of Januar y 1961.
Among the six, five including Gagarin were
ethnic Russians with one being a Ukrainian.
Kamanin was well aware of the fact that
the first cosmonaut would achieve instant
fame and so he went for an honest “Russian
Face,” and the search ended in Gagarin.
He had “a smile that never left his
face, deep blue eyes and kindness that
seemed pouring from his eyes” – Aleksei
Leonov wrote later. Gherman Titov was
equally competent, coming from the
Stalingrad Military Aviation School, but it is
said that it was his name that ruined his
chance. Gagarin’s name was indisputably
11
Autobiography of
Gagarin
It is not a well-known fact that
Gagarin has an autobiography.
Gagarin’s recollections about his life
were compiled and published as
Doroga V Kosmos: zapiski letchikakomonavta sssr edited by N. Denisov
and S. Borzenko. It came out in 1961
with Pravda as publishers. An
English Edition came out under the
name Road to Space: Notes of a PilotCosmonaut in 1962.
The biographies of Gagarin also
are a rare find. One that seems most
authentic is The First Manned Space
Flight: Russia’s Quest for Space
written by Vladimir Suvorov who
was official cameraman working
under
the
Mosnauchfilm
documentary film division of USSR.
It was co-authored by Alexander
Sebelnikov and published by Nova
Science publishers, New York in
1997.
In 1995, Enslow Publishers
brought out another title with
Michael D. Cole as the author:
Vostok 1: First Human in Space.
Bloombury’s 1998 title Starman: The
Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri
Gagarin was controversial revealing
some
Soviet
secrets
and
propagandas though the authors
Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony are
not considered to be spacehistorians. A 50 th anniversary
edition of this is now on the stands.
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover Story
On April 7, Gagarin and Titov
had to sit in the spacecraft
readied for flight in full
suit as proposed by
engineers.
Russian whereas Gherman Titov suggested
a German lineage. Actually it was a
derivative of “Saint Germanus” though it
appeared ‘German’ in pronunciation.
According
to
legend,
when
Khrushchev was shown the names of the
two final candidates, he asked: “What kind
of Russian is this with a German name,
where did you dig him up?” The remaining
obstacle for Gagarin to become the first
cosmonaut was an argument by the Soviet
Rocket Pioneer Sergei Korolov. He wanted
the first cosmonaut to be an Engineering
graduate, so that he could more
‘technically adapt’ himself to space travel.
However, in the later phase of discussions
regarding manned space flight, the
vehicle was decided to be fully
automated, rendering the cosmonaut to
be a passive traveller.
Then the parameters of psychological
preparedness and experience in flight
were considered, which favoured Gagarin
at its best. Titov was younger by an year
than Gagarin (he was 25 then) and it
Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque – presented to the USSR on 21 January 1971
counted towards the period of
experience. Above all, it was not an
honour, but a sacrifice where there was
only a 50% chance of survival. There were
records of many botched space flights
throughout 1960 and a launch-pad
explosion that killed 126 people. Kamanin’s
posthumously published diaries revealed
that he had been reserving Titov for later
flights, less complicated than Gagarin’s.
The Heroic Flight
It is not a surprise that Gagarin knew about
the dangers of his mission. In a letter written
from the Cosmodrome to his wife, Valya,
he asked her to remarry if the launching
experiment turned fatal. He had also asked
her to raise their little daughters “not as
princesses but as real people.”
On April 7, Gagarin and Titov had to
sit in the spacecraft readied for flight in full
suit as proposed by engineers. Around the
same time, the spacecraft was weighed,
revealing that the vehicle had reached its
Gagarin’s Hero
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a significant loosening
of social and cultural restrictions in the USSR. Historians popularly
referring to it as the “Khrushchev Thaw” which allowed previously censored
media of entertainments like television, radio, cinema and books from the
“other world”. It was during this period of transformation that Gagarin
grew up and he was interested in many classic literature works recently
translated into Russian.
His favourite was the American writer Ernest Hemingway who had
already created a ‘Hemingway Cult’ complementing the conceptions of
Russian masculinity. Aleksei Leonov, one among the final twenty cosmonaut
candidates remembers that when he first met Gagarin, he was lounging
on a sofa reading The Old Man and the Sea. Gagarin loved Hemingway
because “he lived as he wished: hunted, fished, braved open sea, loved numerous
women and was loved by them in return. He was romantic but not starry eyed,
manly but not crude”.
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
12
top limit of mass allowed. With Gagarin, it
weighed 4,725 kilograms. So, proposals
were put forward to launch Titov who was
slightly lighter than Gagarin, but Korolov
didn’t like any change in schedule and it
went on unchanged.
On the evening of April 10, a “Flight
Assignment” was decided for Gagarin.
According to Moscow Time, it had a time
frame of one hour 37 minutes, starting from
9:07 to 10:44 in the morning hours of April
12. Titov was the back-up for Gagarin in
the launching schedule and they were
given a final technical briefing on the 11th.
At 5.30 in the morning of April 12, both
of them were awakened, given their
“space food” along with their routine
medical checkups. Gagarin remained
cool with a pulse-rate of 64 beats in a
minute. By about 6.30, the dressing up of
Titov and Gagarin began. The spacesuit
had heat-insulation layers causing body
temperatures to rise, so Gagarin was
dressed after Titov, to reduce his time inside
the suit. Then Gagarin spent a few minutes
in the “test-seat,” when technicians
checked ventilation and other systems of
the spacesuit.
The rocket with the payload vehicle
was by then ready at “Site 2” which was a
SL-3 variant of the SS-6 Sapwood Rocket
with a height of 38.36 meters. It had three
stages, the first stage with four breakaway
boosters with a total weight of 286.03
tonnes. The module for Gagarin’s travel,
named the Vostok 1, was mounted on to
the top of the “instrument module”
containing the engine system providing
102,000 kg of thrust. Basically it meant
that Gagarin was destined to sit “on the
top of a tin-can placed on the top of a
bomb”.
Cover Story
After spending a few more minutes
with Titov and colleagues Gagarin left for
“Site 2” where he was taken by an elevator
to the top of the Rocket. The launch vessel
was a small one-manned spherical
module with a diameter of 2.3 meters.
Before boarding it, Gagarin saw Sergei
Korolov looking haggard after a sleepless
night. Gagarin was a favourite of Korolev.
Gagarin’s trainer Ivanovsky was also there
who helped Gagarin up the ladder and
into the module.
Ivanovsky whispered into his ear that
‘1:2:5’ code should be used in case the
vehicle needed manual control, under
emergency situations. It was already given
to Gagarin in a sealed envelope asking to
be opened only in case of danger, but
Ivanovsky was not sure whether Gagarin
would be doing it in any such kind of
situation. When Gagarin sat up in his seat,
he was strapped to it and the hatch was
closed. However, the hatch didn’t close
hermetically. It was a “one time-one way”
hatch, so Ivanovsky with the help of a fitter,
removed all the 32 screws sealing the
hatch and putting them back at a frantic
pace, which became a reward-claim for
the fitter V.I. Morozov, later on.
Despite this intervention, the rocket
blasted off nearly as per schedule at
09:06:59.7, Moscow Time. There was a
problem with the second stage of the
Rocket causing it to burn longer than
scheduled, raising the spacecraft to a 327
km apogee orbit, instead of the planned
230 km. Gagarin was however not aware
of this and communicated his greetings to
the ground station also spending a few
seconds with his flight journal. But, due to
weightlessness, the journal floated on his
back without the pencil (which was
attached to it with a string) forcing him to
use the voice recorder. However, it was
on automatic mode, already working
without any useful data recorded, so
Gagarin rewound it and tried recording
again, apparently erasing some previous
data.
Home! Sweet Home!
More than 500 humans have now travelled
into space and have watched our home
planet from there, but Gagarin was the
first man to see it. As he began orbiting the
Earth, he tasted food and gazed at the
Earth flying below. “There was a good view
of the Earth which had a very distinct and
pretty blue halo. It had a smooth transition
from pale blue, blue, dark blue, violet and
Yuri Gagarin with his wife and daughter
Gagarin And Valya
Gagarin met Valya (Valentina Ivanova Goryacheva) at a dance programme
while attending the military flight training at the Orenburg Aviation School.
Valya was a nursing student, lovely and shy, the youngest of six children
in her family. Together they enjoyed reading Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens
and to her great surprise Gagarin even brought the works of Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky, the Russian rocket pioneer.
They discussed everything they read, Valya commenting to her mother
“he has sharpened his teeth on the granite of science. I think, he will be going to
school all his life!” When there was news of Sputnik’s historical flight and
Khrushchev’s announcement of sending a man to space, Gagarin whispered
to her ears that it would be none other than himself. On
27 October 1957 Gagarin married Valya in his new officer’s greatcoat because
it was on the same day he graduated with top ranking honours from
Orenburg.
They had two daughters. Elena is the chief keeper of Kremlin museums
now and younger daughter Galya teaches economics at Moscow University.
absolute black! It was a magnificent
picture...” Gagarin’s official statement after
flight read. He also added – “People of
the world, let’s safeguard and enhance
this beauty, not destroying it!”
Then it was the time to descend and
Gagarin expected the 40 second burn of
the braking engine, as per the schedule.
But, there was a problem. As the burning
of the braking engine was about to begin,
a single valve within it failed to close
completely, letting some fuel escape into
the combustion chamber. Since
everything was fully automatic, this
prevented the main engine from cutting
off and it burned to empty all of its
remaining fuel.
At the same time, the pressurised
oxidizer continued escaping through the
steering thrusters, causing the rocket to spin
13
wildly around its axis at about 30 degree
per second. This was eventually stopped
when the preset-timer cut off the engine.
Ten minutes after the scheduled time the
module plunged into the atmosphere of
earth. At about 7 kilometers from Earth,
Gagarin prepared to eject from the
module. The main hatch was jettisoned
and he ejected with two parachutes, one
secured as back up. He landed safely onto
a field near the Volga River—a farmer ’s
wife and her granddaughter were witness
to it.
Hero of the World
Gagarin’s travel to space lasted only for
108 minutes, but that was enough for him
to become the national hero of Soviet
Union and of the World. In the official Soviet
documents, however, there is no mention
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover Story
Yuri Gagarin was an inspiration for the younger generation of his time
That moment of glory was
not only for them, but also
for the whole world
because he was the first
visitor from Earth to the
“other world” which he saw
with a beating heart!
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
of Gagarin jumping with the parachute and
the details about Gagarin’s landing were
not known to the world for a long time, till
the “iron-curtain” fell.
When local newspapers tried to make
stories of Anna Akimovna and her
granddaughter seeing Gagarin’s descent,
KGB officials went to their office and
blocked it. This was because as per the
prevailing international rules on aviation
then, the pilot “should have to remain in
14
FRED and Matroksha (also known
as Phantom Torso) are mannequins
developed by NASA (National
Aeronautics
and
Space
Administration) and ESA (European
Space Agency) respectively.
They are armless, legless,
human-shaped torsos wrapped in
bandages and sent to the ISS
(International Space Station) to
mimic the effects of radiation and
other outer-space phenomenon on
the human body. Matroksha recently
completed his four months at the ISS
collecting data from the radiation
bombarded on its body. The studies
conducted on these torsos will
greatly affect NASA’s plan to set up
a manned out-post on the Moon and
future man-trip to Mars.
One of the critical challenges
in sending humans on these
extended missions is to protect
astronauts from the harmful
radiation present in outer space. We
know that our atmosphere filters out
the harmful radiation emitted from
the Sun and other inhabitants of the
universe like supernova and giant
stars, before it reaches the surface
of the Earth.
Information regarding the
amount of radiation present in outer
space and the amount that human
body actually absorbs is required to
design an appropriate spacesuit for
the astronauts. This information
becomes more critical for long
duration space missions such as a
Mars trip. Several computer models
have being developed over the years
the craft, from launch to landing.” This rule,
if applied to Gagarin’s flight, would have
disqualified him as being “the first traveller
in space.”
Nevertheless, Gagarin’s historic
launch into space and return was the
news-headline all over the world. He was
awarded the official title of “Hero of the
Soviet Union” and got double promotion
to the rank of a major. After his flight,
Gagarin spent almost a year travelling all
over the world with his wife Valya, as a living
icon of Soviet achievement. He visited
Czechoslovakia, Finland, England, Iceland,
Brazil, Canada, Hungary, France, Cuba,
Afghanistan, India and Sri Lanka.
Cover Story
Enjoying the Space Rides
by space agencies to simulate the
space environment and estimations
are performed to calculate the
radiation amount but actually
collecting the radiation information
from a torso present at ISS would be a
much more efficient way to get
realistic numbers. This information
will also validate the existing
computer codes and guide in
developing new ones to predict the
radiation amount and effects.
To simulate the effect of radiation
on human body, several hundred
radiation sensors are embedded in
Fred and Matroksha’s bodies and they
are exposed to the radiation at ISS in
similar situations as an astronaut will
be on a real space mission. NASA
scientists have analyzed the results
obtained from these sensors and have
found that the computer models are
actually quite good and are accurate
to within 10% of the measured
amount.
One of the most dangerous kinds
of radiation present in space is GCR
(Galactic Cosmic Rays). They enter the
solar system from outside (distant
supernovas) and travel nearly the
speed of light. They are charges
particles made up of bare nuclei of
both light and heavy metals and can
affect/damage
human
cells.
Traditional radiation shielding cannot
stop GCR particles. The amount of
radiation that actually reaches the
vital organs of the astronauts should
be estimated to ensure proper
shielding. The radiation has to pass
the spacecraft walls, the spacesuits,
and the human body skin before they
can damage the organs. There is also
secondary radiation resulting from the
collision of charged particles with a
barrier that needs to be considered.
Another factor affecting the
health of the astronauts is the “solar
flare” that can suddenly erupt from a
sunspot, regions of high magnetic
activity
and
reduced
surface
temperature. The solar flares
comprise of radiation including all
wavelengths
across
the
electromagnetic spectrum from radio
to gamma rays. Energetic protons are
released that can penetrate through
the human body causing biochemical
damage. One of the most powerful
solar flares was observed in September
1859. The flare was visible to the
naked eye and produced spectacular
auroras down to tropical latitudes
until Hawaii (USA). Tests need to be
conducted
on
Matroksha
by
bombarding it with high-energy
protons to simulate the effect of solar
flares on astronauts during interplanetary missions.
The torsos are made up of special
plastic that mimics the density of the
human body, sliced horizontally into
35 1-inch-thick layers. Within these
layers sensors are embedded to
measure the amount of radiation. Fred
and Matroksha also contain special
sensors at the location of the vital
organs such as brain, heart, stomach
etc. to simulate the effect of radiation
on the vital organs of humans.
There are certain limitations on
the amount of shielding that can be
provided to the astronauts. There is
a weight constraint on the spacecraft
as well as on the thickness of the
spacesuits.
Therefore,
better
materials need to be developed to
provide required shielding from
cosmic radiation on long duration
space missions. The effects of high
amount of radiation for a short period
of time versus low doses for an
extended period also need to be
studied.
Matroksha also has actual human
blood cells put in small tubes inside
the stomach and some other places
near the surface. There are small
segments of bone marrow inside the
torso. The effects of radiation on the
blood cells well inside the surface
and near the surface are studied to
determine the possibility of having
leukemia or other types of cancer due
to the exposure. The effect of
radiation on the DNA of the cell is
studied and if the radiation breaks
the DNA sequence in several cells
in a short amount of time, there is a
fair chance that the cell will become
cancerous. The cells cannot repair a
large amount of DNA breaks in a
short period. These tests can be
repeated as desired.
During the Second World
War, the German army
occupied his village,
throwing his family out of
their home and abducted
his brother and sister for
slavery in Nazi camps.
Gagarin helped his parents
to dig a dugout and they
lived there until the war was
over.
After returning from the world-tour he
became actively involved in training his
comrades for flight and was deservedly
made the Deputy Chief of Cosmonaut
Training. In 1967, he began training for the
first Soyuz flight, becoming the back-up
pilot for Vladimir Komarov who died in a
fatal crash. By then, Soviet officials tried to
keep him away from any further flights but
Gagarin wanted to reach for the skies
once again. That dream remained
unfulfilled as Gagarin was killed in a MiGjet crash on 27 March 1968, at the age of
34.
It was a very sad event for Soviet Union
and for the whole world, though the actual
reason behind the accident was never
revealed or found out. The grief from his
death crossed the battlefield of the Cold
War as well. It is well documented by the
plaque left on Moon by the Apollo 15
mission in memory of Gagarin. Let’s also
salute this Russian Icarus on the 50 th
anniversary of his great achievement,
opening a new vista to the world of space
that was never known before.
15
Ms Swati Saxena is currently pursuing PhD in
Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania
State University, State College, PA, USA.
Address: Swati Saxena c/o Dr. Ashok Saxena,
204, Narain Towers, Sanjay Place, Agra-282002
Mr N.S. Arun Kumar is Editorial Assistant, Kerala
State Institute for Children’s Literature, Sanskrit
College Campus, Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram,
Kerala-695034
SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011