Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, August 26, 1997
Mir evacuation may be only option
Systems failure creates oxygen scare on station
The Associated Press
The three men aboard Russia's run-down Mir space station were left without any way to generate oxygen yesterday after both their primary and backup systems failed, at least temporarily.
U. S. and Russian space officials said they wouldn't know whether the two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut on board were able to fix either of the oxygen-producing devices until the next scheduled communication with the station this morning.
Nevertheless, one NASA official called it a potentially serious problem — one that could force an evacuation.
"It could be that tomorrow it could be no problem, or it could
be a fairly significant problem," said NASA spokesman Ed Campion. "If you can't get either of the two systems back up, then you're facing a serious situation."
At the time of the cosmonauts' last communication yesterday with Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow, they were struggling to fix the secondary solid fuel-burning system.
The primary Elektron generator, which had been turned off since last week to conserve power, had shut itself down yesterday after it began overheating, Campion said.
"Before they went to bed, they may have gotten things fixed," Campion said. "We just don't know."
In Russia, calls to Mission Control for comment around midnight Moscow time went unanswered after NASA disclosed the problem. But CNN reported that an unidentified official, while acknowledging the problem, played down its seriousness.
broken, Mir has enough oxygen to last several days, Campion said from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Even if both systems remain
What's more, NASA astronaut Michael Foale and his two Russian crewmates could stretch their air supply by using oxygen tanks set aside for upcoming spacewalks. NASA officials said they did not know how much oxygen those tanks hold.
If neither oxygen-producing system can be restarted during the next several days, Foale and his two Russian crewmates would have to abandon ship in the attached Soyuz capsule.
There have been repeated problems with the new Elektron generator, carried up by space shuttle Atlantis in May. But this is the first time since February that a crew has had serious trouble with the backup system, in which solid-fuel canisters are ignited to produce oxygen.
One of these canisters burst into flames in February, filling the station with smoke and almost causing the crew to evacuate.
The cosmonauts were trying to ignite a canister, or candle, yesterday when the system failed. They replaced the igniter mechanism but the canister still would not burn.
"This may be nothing more complicated than putting a new candle into the mechanism and they're back in business," said NASA spokesman Rob Navias.
There was a bit of good news yesterday aboard Mir.
Commander Anatoly Solovoy reported that power was flowing through the makeshift hatch that he and Pavel Vinogradov installed during an internal spacewalk Friday to restore power.
Indeed, Russian flight controllers verified that an additional 40 amps of electricity were flowing into the station. But commands sent to move three of the four solar panels mounted on the outside of the ruptured lab module were unsuccessful.
Until Monday, the station had been flying at half-power as a result of the June 25 collision with an unmanned cargo ship.
Until 1976, Sweden forced sterilization
Swedish paper brings attention to painful past
The Associated Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — They were found to be "inferior," flawed by bad eyesight, mental retardation or "undesirable" racial characteristics. To prevent this genetic heritage from being passed on, they were sterilized — sometimes involuntarily.
Sweden had as many as 60,000 of its own citizens sterilized between 1935 and 1976. Adults and children were singled out by doctors, school authorities or other officials and were pressured to consent to the procedures.
This sterilization program bore chilling similarities to Nazi ideas
of racial superiority — and media reports on it now are provoking sober self-examination.
The program stemmed from a pursuit of eugenics, a once-popular movement to improve humanity by controlling genetic factors in reproduction.
Though Sweden's sterilization program was a matter of record, it received little public attention, ignored in schoolbooks and hardly mentioned in reference works. A recent series by the prestigious newspaper "Dagens Nyheter", however, has stirred national debate.
Especially shocking to many Swedes is the fact that the law allowing the sterilizations wasn't overturned until 1976, three decades after the Nazis' human engineering policies collapsed in the rubble of the Third Reich.
The sterilizations targeted a wide range of people: those of mixed race; unmarried mothers with several children; people judged to be habitual criminals; even a boy considered "sexually precocious."
"Grounds for recommending sterilization: unmistakable Gypsy features, psychopathy, vagabond life," reads one document cited by Dagens Nyheter.
Maria Nordin, 72, told the newspaper she had been sterilized in 1943 because she was regarded as inferior.
"One day, the (school) superintendent said I should come into his room to sign some papers. I understood what this was about so I ran into a toilet and sat there and cried for a long time for myself," she said.
Sweden, with its well-developed welfare state and long-standing progressive stances on social issues, is not accustomed to being on the defensive on ethical issues.
"This is a frightening picture that now is being shown to the Swedish people," Alf Svensson, chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Party, said in a letter to Prime Minister Goeran Persson.
Social Minister Margot Wallstroem says she is considering whether to compensate people who were forcibly sterilized. That would require overturning current law that says the victims can't get compensation because the sterilizations were lawful when performed.
Nordin applied for compensation last year but her request was turned down by Wallstreet, who now says she feels ashamed over the matter.
"I will take up the matter for discussion with the government," the Cabinet minister said.
The Dagens Nyheter report has hit Swedes at a time when they were already examining some painful history from World War II. The government, under increasing international pressure, is looking into whether property looted by the Nazis from Jews in other countries ended up in Sweden.
German leaders found guilty of manslaughter
The Associated Press
BERLIN — The East German communist leader who threw open the Berlin Wall eight years ago was convicted of manslaughter yesterday for the shooting deaths of citizens who tried to flee to the West during the Cold War.
Egon Krenz remained defiant even as he was taken into custody to begin serving his 6 1/2-year sentence.
Pale but with his head held high, the 60-year-old Krenz before "I will not submit!" before being led away.
Krenz said he did not accept unified Germany's right to prosecute him.
"I wasn't convicted because of a crime, but because of my political offices in East Germany," he said in a statement afterward. "The political persecution is revenge for the fact that East Germany existed."
The Berlin state court convicted Krenz on four manslaughter counts and ordered him jailed immediately as a potential flight risk.
The verdicts mark the first time former members of the East German political hierarchy have been held accountable for deaths at the heavily fortified East German border.
It also was likely to be the last trial against former political leaders, because most either have died or been excused for health reasons. Other trials since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall have dealt only with border guards and military leaders.
At least 916 people were killed trying to escape during East Germany's 41 years of existence, according to authorities, including 80 at the Berlin Wall. The charges were reduced to
"The political persecution is revenge for the fact that East Germany existed."
Egon Krenz
East German communist leader
six counts of manslaughter to speed up the trial that began in November 1995.
Krenz's defense lawyers had argued he couldn't be held accountable for the deaths because East Germany lacked independence as a pawn of Moscow.
"Even if East Germany acted under the command of the Soviet Union, the crimes still must be prosecuted," said presiding judge Josef Hoch.
Two co-defendants — former East Berlin communist chief Guenter Schabowski, 67, and economics expert Guenter Kleiber, 65 — each were convicted of three counts of manslaughter and sentenced to three years. No date was set for them to report to prison.
Prosecutors, who had recommended an 11-year sentence, said they might appeal that part of the decision.
Defense lawyers for all three said they would consider appealing. Krenz said he'd also go to the European Court of Justice.
For those who survived escape attempts and the relatives of those who did not, the verdict was a long time in coming. About 100 gathered outside the turn-of-the-century courthouse chanting "Murderers, murderers!" as the defendants entered.
So, Where Is Your College Degree Going To Take You?
PEACE CORPS is now in 87 countries!
Reps will be at KU!
INFORMATION TABLE
INFORMATION TABLE August 26th & 27th 9 am-4 pm Memorial Union
FILM PRESENTATION
"Completely Alive" Aug.27th,4 pm Regionalist Room Memorial Union