Fungus on Mir

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010713.html

One minor point that Cecil forgot to mention is that the fungus has already been back on earth for years. In addition to the samples brought back for study, surely a lot of it came back with the cosmonauts when they finished their missions. Also, when the automated Progress resupply ships were emptied of their supplies they were reloaded with trash from the station and then deorbited. That includes all of the rags and paper towels used when cleaning the station.

Drake Christensen

Also Im pretty sure at least one female astronaut served an extended duty on Mir.

Right you are

Once again Cecil let’s humor get in the way of the facts.

What do you think they did when Shannon Lucid came on board? Said, “Prevyet, Amerikanski!” and handed her a mop?

All the cosmonauts were male, as Cecil stated.

What I want to know is, what constitutes an “agressive” fungus? What, does it ask your girlfriend to dance while you’re standing right next to her or something?

Hah! Killer space fungus, indeed. If you want to see a really scary fungus, check almost any single guy’s fridge.

Well looking at this page

http://www.ik1sld.org/mircrew.htm

Some of these Russian names look female to me.

Helen? Elena? Musa?

I can actually help with this:

Elena Kondakova was mentioned earlier in the thread.

Helen Sharman is British. She went to Mir may 18,1991 and spent 8 days in space.

Musa Manarov is male.

So what’s the complaint? I don’t think any of the females who went to Mir were babushkas, were they? No, they were scientists.

So that just leaves this line by Cecil:

Perhaps he should have said “mostly male”?

Of course, the reason Shannon Lucid had to spend so long on the MIR was it took her that long to clean up after the (male) cosmonauts. :wink:

Hello there dawlink, just so you know, the word Babushka is not the word for “dirtophibic Russian grandmothers.” It is actually the UKRAINIAN word for witch. However, “Baba” which corresponds to the beginning of Babushka is the UKRAINIAN word for grandmother. So i guess you are partly right except for the fact that the word is UKRAINIAN!!!..it is alright though, forgive you for your mistakes! :wink:

Small point - Acetic Acid cannot “pit” plastic, titanium or glass. No matter how concentrated.

*However, “Baba” which corresponds to the beginning of Babushka is the UKRAINIAN word for grandmother. *

Aricia,
Is “Baba Yaga” of Ukrainian origin, then? For some reason, I thought she was from Haiti or some such place; I don’t know why, though.
RR

River Runner,

i don’t have the answer as of yet, but i will ask the all knowing Ukrainian Mother or all knowing Ukrainian Aunt about that and return with the answer. one thign is though, that languages are always connected, so it might be from Haiti?

i will return!

I would be very surprised if Baba Yaga had a Haitian origin. Every account I’ve read of the folk tale is of Russian origin.
See the Encyclopedia Britannica article, which says
<<in Russian folklore, an ogress who steals, cooks, and eats her victims, usually children.>>

I believe another reference to Baba Yaga is one of the movements in Moussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Needless to say, Moussorgsky is a russian composer.

Cecil said nothing about the origin of the word. He said it meant “dirtophobic Russian grandmothers.” This was of course a slight exaggeration; babushka is generally understood to mean “grandmother” (or more precisely, “little grandmother”) in Russian. From the online Encarta: “Breshkovsky, Catherine, full name Yekaterina Konstantinovna Breshko-Breshkovskaya (1844-1934), Russian revolutionary leader, known as the Little Grandmother (babushka) of the Russian Revolution,” etc.

Cecil is well aware that there were women aboard Mir from time to time, some for extended periods. The fact remains that for most of Mir’s 14 years in orbit it was occupied by unescorted males. His comments in any case were meant tongue-in-cheek.

Perhaps “damage” would have been a better word. Natalia Novikova, a deputy chief of the Department at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, was quoted in news accounts as saying, “Bacteria and fungi eat this stuff and generate products of metabolism, particularly organic acids which can corrode steel, glass and plastic.” The principal acid mentioned was acetic acid. We have seen a photograph of pitted titanium found aboard Mir. That said, we cannot say with certainty that pitting and other damage was caused by acetic acid; it may have been some other acid produced by the fungus. Our apologies.

Okay okay okay, all you smarty pants and your encyclopedias. Being Ukrainian i was always told that Babushka meant witch (in Ukrainian), i am sure it has a meaning in Russian as well, as explained to me, ‘grandmother’. Oh here we all go with that silly Russian verses Ukrainian debate…simply, Russain and Ukrainian are very similar, meanings of words are mingled and mangled all over.
Why are we having this discussion anyway, the article was about a space ship with a fungus, but i guess we all have to get the story straight, huh?