On December 12 a meeting of the Academic Council of the Institute, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the deep-sea manned submersible "Mir" took place at the big conference hall of the Institute of Oceanology by P.P. Shirshov of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The director of the Institute of Oceanology, Academician R.Nigmatulin, and representatives of the FPLB, the Ministry of Defense and the World Ocean Museum (Kaliningrad) addressed with a welcome speech to the creators and crew of the manned submersible “Mir”.
One of the creators of “Mir”, Head of the Laboratory of deep manned submersibles of the Institute of Oceanology by P.P. Shirshov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Hero of Russia A. Sagalevich gave a report for the participants of the meeting.
According to the eminent scientist, “Mir” – is still the best deep-sea manned submersible in the world, made so many important and necessary operations as no one manned submersible did in the world. The statistics were presented to the listeners: for 25 years “Mirs” made 1095 dives, including the assignment of special national importance – liquidation of the accident of submarines “Komsomolets” and “Kursk”. By “Mirs”, which are capable of reaching more than 6km depth, it was possible to discover 20 new species of sea inhabitants, to explore rare natural phenomena, such as geothermal fields, underwater volcanoes, etc.
The International Scientific Expedition “Mirs at Lake Baikal”, organized by the FPLB in 2008-2010, has become a special milestone in the history of the Laboratory of deep manned submersibles and pilots of “Mirs”.
At a meeting in the Institute of Oceanology by P.P. Shirshov everybody remembered all those who participated in the creation of “Mir” and made an invaluable contribution to the development of Soviet, Russian and world science (in particular, M.Falin, A.Suslyaeva, V.Kuzmina, A.Fironova etc.). In the conclusion of the meeting the fragments of documentaries, made during the dives of “Mir” were demonstrated.
Deep-sea manned submersibles “Mir-1” and “Mir-2”was built in Finland by Rauma Repola in 1987. The project was carried out under the supervision of constructors and engineers of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology. Creation of the submersibles was launched in May 1985 and completed in November 1987. In December 1987, In field testing, Mir-1 descended to 6,170 m and Mir-2 descended to 6,120 m in the Atlantic. The units were installed for insurance on the ship “Akademik Mstislav Keldysh”, built in 1981 in Finland and converted in 1987 to work with the deep-testing units.
