The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station in 1986.

The culmination of the Russian space program's efforts to establish a long-term manned space presence, Mir(which in Russian means both "peace" and "world") spent 15 years in orbit. It served as both the model for the International Space Station and the home base for its construction. Mir was permanently manned, housing between two and six cosmonauts on rotating schedules, until it was returned to Earth on March 22, 2001.

Science NetLinks 
What are the benefits and challenges of a livable space station? Students evaluate a proposed space station plan based on a number of criteria in the Science NetLinks lesson Designing a Space Station (9-12).

Use the interactive Make a Mission tool (6-8) to discover how technology allows humans to collect scientific data about distant planets but also how it contrains the designs of spacecraft that carry the technology into space.
 

Illuminations 
A discussion of the solar collectors on the space station begins the Illuminations lesson Collecting the Rays(3-5). Students investigate relationships among the linear dimensions, area and volume of rectangular prisms, and then explore the effect of variations on the efficiency of solar collectors.