"The current ISS crew, cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and astronaut Leroy Chiao, have been honored with concluding another phase of a key space program that has been underway since it was launched on board Russia's Mir space station," a spokesman for the Extreme State Thermal Physics Institute under the aegis of the Russian Academy of Sciences told RIA Novosti.
The Mission Control Center (TsUP) in the Moscow Region host a communications session with the ISS crew Tuesday, which will be attended by the program's research manager, Academician Vladimir Fortov, and the German Education and Science Minister, Edelgard Bulman.
Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov launched the experiment on board the Mir orbiter.
According to the Extreme State Thermal Physics Institute, Plasma Crystal is an experiment in the field of powder plasma physics, where the powder plasma contains charged micron-sized powder particles in addition to electrons, ions and neutral particles. This results in several drastically new effects calling for research.
In laboratories on Earth, the properties of plasma-powder structures are distorted by gravity, while the distortion is absent in space.
Plasma crystal experiments are important in modeling dust and gas clouds in outer space, as well as advanced plasma technologies, tailor-made materials and microelectronics.
The Mir space station remained in service for 15 years. The bulk of the 140-ton orbiter burned up on March 23, 2001 upon its entry into the Earth's atmosphere, with individual pieces of the wreckage splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. More than 100 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 countries manned the orbiter in its day.
