Creator of Worlds

Banners with the inscription "The country meets its heroes" sway over Moscow. Three heroic faces sway over Moscow: Chilingarov, Sagalevich and Gruzdev. Record holders! They dived to a depth of four thousand three hundred and one meters. Glorified...

Banners with the inscription "The country meets its heroes" sway over Moscow. Three heroic faces sway over Moscow: Chilingarov, Sagalevich and Gruzdev. Record holders! They dived to a depth of four thousand three hundred and one meters. They glorified Russia.

What is heroic here, however, is not clear if any State Duma deputy or a simple millionaire is capable of this. Our columnist Yuri Rost once also descended on a deep-sea submersible to a decent depth - he does not post his portraits all over Moscow and does not call himself a hero.

And in general, any "batyscaphe" could set the flag - a word that is mistakenly called the deep-sea manned vehicles Mir-1 and Mir-2.

But the chief designer and creator of the Mirs - Igor Evgenyevich Mikhaltsev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree, Hero of Socialist Labor - is really a hero. Not even because he invented them, but already because he managed (in our country! For civilian, not military needs!) To bring his plan to implementation - launching into the water. by the name of Russia should know its hero Mikhaltsev.

- Did you use the word "batyscaphe" in your article? asked Rost, who not only filmed Mikhaltsev, but is also friends with him (although with Rost these two things are inseparable).

- Just one time.

- Then Mikhaltsev may not give you an interview.

- But this word was in the quote of Minister Lavrov!

“Then maybe he will.”

Well, anyway, I gave...

- Igor Evgenievich, why do you get so annoyed when Mirs are called bathyscaphes?

“It's like calling a helicopter a balloon.

- Where did this error come from?

- From the ignorance of people using the accepted terms. Swiss engineer Auguste Pekar flew into the stratosphere on a stratosphere balloon filled with helium, a light gas. Returning to earth, he decided: why not do the same in the ocean. And did. And he called this engineering structure a bathyscaphe. Here, the vessel is filled with something that is lighter than water, such as gasoline, a habitable cabin is attached to it, which has batteries, onboard life-support equipment, electric motors and other small things, and a load is suspended. And this whole structure is designed so that it sinks with a load, and when it reaches the bottom and unhooks the load, it floats. That's what a bathyscaphe is. This has nothing to do with habitable deep-sea vehicles. This heavy system - bathyscaphe - has no maneuverability: neither vertical nor horizontal.

- That is, once down - and that's it?

- Exactly. That is, the system is made to break records. Auguste Pecard could no longer do this, but his son Jacques Pecard, who is still in good health today and with whom I have a good relationship, and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh on January 23, 1960, plunged to a depth of 10,916 meters, having previously found the deepest place in the World Ocean - in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. We plunged, looked through the porthole, saw something funny (there were practically no photographs) and surfaced, later telling about our emotions and observations. So the world record was set. Jacques Pekar is a very respected man in Switzerland, and Walsh became an admiral in the USA.

Deep-sea manned vehicles are a completely different technique. They have maneuverability, move horizontally and vertically, can turn, bend down, take samples from the bottom, load them into small containers, explore the surrounding space in the full sense of the word. And "Worlds" can move at a speed of 4.5 knots.

— When did you come up with the idea of ​​“Worlds”?

- In the 1970s, I formulated the concept of indispensability in a new unfamiliar environment of a human researcher, an observer - in comparison with the operator of any programmable robotic devices.

- Under the water?

- Wherever it is! In a new setting. But the ocean is a special element. It is always the whole environment is new! Therefore, vehicles for the study of the ocean need habitable ones.

In oceanology, two critical figures are accepted - 2000 and 6000 meters. And for deep-sea manned vehicles, these figures are usually used. 2000 meters is the depth limiting 16% of the ocean floor. And 6000 meters is already 98.5% of the bottom of the oceans.

- And who was left with 1.5%?

- Those who will make a deep-sea apparatus of extreme depths. So far, there is no such thing in the world. There were bathyscaphes and remotely controlled uninhabited vehicles. The French built the bathyscaphe "Archimedes" - for (approximately) 9500 meters of immersion. Up and down, nothing special. Deeper than 6000 there were only two or three dozen dives (by all means). The Japanese made an uninhabited apparatus at 11,000 m. And lost it. And there is nothing to find. But it's not a cheap toy.

And how much do the devices cost?

- In addition to our six-thousanders, "Mir-1" and "Mir-2", there are two more devices in the world (three were built). The American Sea Cliff apparatus, which is currently being re-equipped, cost something around $100 million (of which $25 was spent on research and development work that was used not only for Sea Cliff, so the actual cost of the apparatus is considered to be $75 million). The French did not give official figures known to me, but it seems that their Nautile cost about 65 million dollars. The Japanese announced that the Shinkai 6500 cost $92 million and the carrier ship cost $41 million.

I prefer not to talk about the cost of ours, believing that this is confidential information, I will only say: they cost our country much cheaper than all the others created in the world.

But back to history. So, the first two-thousander research apparatus in the USSR "Pisces-IV" (Pisces IV) was built according to my technical specifications (technical assignment) - precisely as a research one, by order of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences at a small Canadian company "Heiko" in 1973. It was ready for sea trials, but the US detained him. The father of the US nuclear fleet, Admiral Rickaver, was not too lazy to fly from Washington to Trudeau (then Prime Minister of Canada) and offered to buy it to the Canadian government and leave it in Canada.

There was only one two-thousander in the world then - the American apparatus "Alvin" (Alvin) - ordered by the US Navy as reconnaissance and built in 1964. He did a lot for the knowledge of the ocean. Here is an example related to the Alvin apparatus, which, by the way, proves the validity of my concept of the importance of habitable vehicles.

With its help, the largest discovery of humanity of the twentieth century, about which little is known, was made - the discovery of anaerobic life on our planet - life without oxygen. The talented oceanologist and geophysicist Robert Ballard, looking through about 40 thousand images taken by an uninhabited vehicle in the Galapagos Trench, saw some strange tubes that changed their position at the bottom from image to image. He called the apparatus "Alvin". The apparatus submerged, and the scientists raised vestimentifera, a new form of life, to the surface. They have everything: the nervous system, and the equivalent of the digestive, and respiratory, and the formation of proteins - only they have a sulfur cycle, not an oxygen one. When the director of the Space Research Institute found out about this, he called the director of the Institute of Oceanology and said: why do we fly to Mars, if we have a completely different form of life at home?

So, if not for Alvin, 40 thousand pictures taken by the robot would not have helped to make this greatest discovery of the twentieth century.

Returning to the fate of my "Pysis-IV", it must be recalled once again that it was left in Canada. Admiral Rickaver considered that such an apparatus should not be given to the USSR. All this became known much later.

- And who used it?

“The Canadian government bought it and gave it to the Pacific Ocean Research Institute of Canada in the port of Victoria.

But I had strong nerves in those days. I waited for some time and, realizing that two devices are a completely different quality, I suggested that the same company make two devices. They got interested. And in Moscow they understood: if Rickaver flew to Canada on purpose because of the device, then this means that this is something important. And Mikhaltsev received money for two devices.

We figured out how to get around the agreement between the US and European countries on the ban on supplying new technology equipment to the USSR and socialist countries. But that was for products. And no one forbade buying and exporting components.

In general, the company rented premises in Zurich. One rugged body of habitable vehicles was ordered in Japan, the other in America. And they took it out - this is not an apparatus, that is, not a product, but parts. The first was assembled in Zurich, they drove it, like Suvorov, across the Alps - on a trailer to Genoa, tested it in the Mediterranean Sea (they didn’t test up to two thousand, I was afraid that the Americans would do something bad), then they loaded it onto the waiting motor ship Fryazino ”, after 4 hours he starred in Novorossiysk. This is how we got Pisis-VII. And when they were doing the second one, the Americans had already spat (at that time they were building their six-thousander Sea Cliff). "Pisys-XI" was assembled in Vancouver, tested nearby, in the Pacific Ocean, and taken to Vladivostok on our ship, from where the "Pisys-XI" was transported to Novorossiysk on an Il-76. So in 1975-1976 we got two research inhabited two-thousanders, which worked 10 years before the "Mirs" and did a lot in different oceans and seas for the knowledge of our planet.

“What about them now?”

— One stands as an exhibit in Kaliningrad on our ship (the old Vityaz), which has been turned into a museum. And something was removed from the second Pisis as spare parts for the Mirs. But it can be restored and used.

— And we don't have more two-thousanders?

- No. But now Jacques Pekar is selling his Trout. He asked to find him a buyer. The porthole is a meter in diameter. Working depth - 500 meters. An indispensable thing for those who are going to build and operate an underwater gas pipeline across the Baltic (there is just such a shallower depth). Uninhabited vehicles are of little use there. Or not suitable at all.

— Why did you build Pisis in Canada? Was it impossible to make such devices on the territory of the USSR?

— Remember, it was 1970… Gagarin had already flown into space, 100 megatons of a nuclear bomb had already been blown up on Novaya Zemlya. Naturally, we could easily make such an apparatus. But the industry of the Soviet Union was designed for large series, if it was defense products, and if it was civilian, then for mass production. It was difficult to do unique things in the USSR with the help of research institutes and developers.

“So it was cheaper in Canada than here?”

- A lot! This is the specificity of experimental samples. Making an experimental model in our Union, if it is not a defense product, is a difficult task. I can speak about this from experience. I have worked with the military-industrial complex all my life. "Worlds" is the fourth most important thing that I managed to do in my life. So I myself think. I had things much more important.

I happened to make a discovery. Everything was classified. In 1963, I received a diploma, it says: "Mikhaltsev made a discovery." And that's it. No name, nothing. Only number 61.

“You still can’t talk about it?

- It is quite possible, because I was tired of it, and I declassified this case in 1994. And now it is called like this: “The phenomenon of the continuity of the sound field in the ocean has been discovered - the Mikhaltsev effect.” This is perhaps the first in importance, because all early warning sonar submarines (today - all the navies of the world!) Have an architecture that uses this discovery. Second. Just like the Mirs, two special research hydroacoustic vessels Sergey Vavilov and Pyotr Lebedev were built according to my terms of reference and under my leadership - 1956-1960. And two sciences were born: ocean acoustics (there was no such science, there was only hydroacoustics) and acoustic methods for studying the ocean. This, I believe, is the second most important case. But I'm sorry, I'm not inclined to engage in self-promotion, back to the "Worlds".

For eight years I got money for them. But the main thing is that I wrote TK for them. The way I see fit. There are two types of TK. One in terms of "I need to." And this is given to the manufacturer, but how to do it is his problem. And the second in terms of the type: "It is necessary - and I know how it can be done, and I take responsibility for the possibility of implementation, and you do it under my guidance."

Is this your type?

- Yes. I have worked on this principle all my life. Starting with the acoustic steamships "Sergey Vavilov" and "Pyotr Lebedev" (83 pages were the text of the TK).

In the terms of reference for Mirs, I wrote eight items that had not been done before. Everyone moves the mercury from stern to bow, so that the device goes down with the bow down, then with the bow up. Instead, I made containers into which water is drawn, moved by pumps for pumping outboard water. With a pressure difference of more than 600 bar, this was implemented for the first time in the world.

All my points the Finns, which I found because of the steel, fulfilled. The fact is that all devices are made of titanium, and the "Worlds" are made of martensitic, highly alloyed steel with 18% nickel. I was lucky that I found the Finnish company Lokomo.

What is the value of this steel. Titanium, the best alloy, has a yield strength of about 70 kg per square centimeter, while this steel has 150. It was a godsend, and I began to prepare the Finns to fulfill all the requirements. Lokomo is a company that has never done anything like this. Lokomo is part of the Rauma Repola concern, which makes paper and, in addition, papermaking equipment for sawmilling. Good engineers who are interested in something new. I have been preparing them for two years. He took them to Novorossiysk. At that time, there was a "Keldysh" with "Pysis". For more than a day they measured them and photographed them. Then a year and a half passed. They counted, and I got the money. This was the last one and a half years out of eight.

But I got money for only one device.

How did you manage to make the second one?

- The contract was signed for one device. Three days later, I asked the Finns: if you don't make a single drawing, but just make an exact copy of the device, how much will you have to pay extra? Thanks to good relations, they named a ridiculous figure, they realized that I had no money, and they took me only for the manufacture of four extra spheres: one inhabited and three ballast ones.

And then I prepared two devices without telling anyone about it. According to the TOR, 2 sets of equipment were provided. All technical specifications were read (both in the State Planning Commission and in other departments) and thought: well, imported equipment, of course, it is necessary, they say, to have a spare. And at the bottom in small print - spare parts and accessories (spare tools and devices) - 6% of the contract value. As is customary in shipbuilding.

At the same time, it took me 7 months to get the signatures of deputy ministers confirming that the two apparatuses were the decision of the government. Then there were tests. Crew: Finnish delivery pilot Pekka Laakso, acceptance pilot Anatoly Sagalevich and dive leader Mikhaltsev. They sank on November 7, 1987 in the Gulf of Bothnia. They broke bottles of champagne on Mira. I was entrusted with breaking a bottle of champagne about Mir-1, and the president of Raoma Repola about Mir-2. Then, on December 13 and 15, 1987, the crew dived during a successful acceptance test in the Atlantic at 6170 meters on Mir-1 and at 6120 meters on Mir-2.

And so the American World Technology Evaluation Center (a center that reflects the latest technologies) in 1994 called the "Worlds" "... the best deep-sea manned vehicles ever built in the world."

They differ from the rest in what is said above, and, in addition, in the supply of electricity. Everyone has 50, and I have 100 kilowatt-hours.

Another major difference is in the emergency rescue system. The apparatus has a syntactic buoy inside. So if anything, they press a button in the device and the buoy floats to the surface to the support vessel. Half of the coupler (the same as a railway automatic coupler) is launched along the kovlar cable, as if along a guide. It reaches the apparatus, an automatic hitch takes place, and the apparatus is lifted on a long power cable. No one has such a system. If the apparatus is entangled in something at the bottom, then a second apparatus is also needed. The fact that there are two of them is another unique solution. Only in Russia there are two. Everyone else has one.

- Are you satisfied with the way your "Worlds" are used?

- I can say that not very much. But I am not engaged in exploitation and I am not going to criticize someone else's work. Many important discoveries of world importance have been made. At the North Pole, there was a good work of the Mirs and, I believe, not a very good work of the icebreaker, which did not clear the place for ascent. "Mir-2" broke a light hull there, breaking through the ice, "Fedorov" and "Russia" had to break the ice. Now the pilots Chernyaev and Sagalevich with the "Worlds" are reloaded onto the ship "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh" and go to work normally in the Norwegian Sea - to Komsomolets. At one time I was the initiator and leader of the work on the detection and first measurements of radioactivity around Komsomolets, I understood that if a sea Chernobyl happened, it would be very bad. Now there are radioactivity sensors in the water and on nuclear submarines.

- So, "Worlds" can be used in the following cases: a plane crashed, fell into the ocean - you can look at it, a ship or a boat drowned - you can also look, and if it sinks - you can save it. You can plant a flag at the bottom of the ocean ...

- You speak well. And what else?

- "Titanic" with their help, you can shoot underwater. Tubes can be found...

- It's closer. And then you can do the study of the oceans. The ocean covers 72% of the planet's area. It is shameful to live on a planet whose surface we know less than the far side of the moon.

PS It is a pity that Chilingarov, who used Mirs for his own political purposes (after all, elections are coming soon, and he probably wants to get his fifth Duma term) and who casually ruined Russia's diplomatic relations with the Arctic countries with his record, never once remembered the name of the creator of these "Worlds", which he rode himself and rode his fellow party member and rich foreign guests.

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