bion_v_c_o_TPMBK (ca. 1973-79) - a photo on Flickriver

bion_v_c_o_TPMBK (ca. 1973-79)

"The Bion satellites (Russian: Бион), also named Biocosmos, is a series of Soviet (later Russian) biosatellites focused on space medicine. They are part of the Kosmos satellites.

Bion Space Program

Bion precursor flights and Bion flights:

The Soviet biosatellite program began in 1966 with Kosmos 110, and resumed in 1973 with Kosmos 605. Cooperation in space ventures between the Soviet Union and the United States was initiated in 1971, with the signing of the United States and Soviet Union in Science and Applications Agreement (which included an agreement on space research cooperation). The Soviet Union first offered to fly U.S. experiments on a Kosmos biosatellite in 1974, only a few years after the termination (in 1969) of the U.S. biosatellite program. The offer was realized in 1975 when the first joint U.S./Soviet research were carried out on the Kosmos 782 mission.
The Bion spacecraft were based on the Zenit spacecraft and launches began in 1973 with primary emphasis on the problems of radiation effects on human beings. Launches in the program included Kosmos 110, 605, 690, 782, plus Nauka modules flown on Zenit-2M reconnaissance satellites. 90 kg (200 lb) of equipment could be contained in the external Nauka module.
The Soviet/Russian Bion program provided U.S. investigators a platform for launching Fundamental Space Biology and biomedical experiments into space. The Bion program, which began in 1966, included a series of missions that flew biological experiments using primates, rodents, insects, cells, and plants on a biosatellite in near-earth orbit. NASA became involved in the program in 1975 and participated in 9 of the 11 Bion missions. NASA ended its participation in the program with the Bion No. 11 mission launched in December 1996. The collaboration resulted in the flight of more than 100 U.S. experiments, one-half of all U.S. life sciences flight experiments accomplished with non-human subjects.
The missions ranged from five days (Bion 6) (Kosmos 1514) to around 22 days (Bion 1 and Kosmos 110).

Bion-M:

In 2005, the Bion program was resumed with three new satellites of the modified Bion-M type – the first flight was launched on 19 April 2013 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The first satellite of the new series Bion-M1 featured an aquarium by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and carried 45 mice, 18 Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos, snails, fish and micro-organisms into orbit for 30 days before re-entry and recovery. All the gerbils died due to a hardware failure, but condition of the rest of the experiments, including all geckos, was satisfactory. Half the mice died as was predicted.

Bion-M2 is scheduled to launch in 2023 on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket to an altitude of 800 km. The orbiter will carry 75 mice and studies will focus on how they are affected at the molecular level by space radiation."

The above from/at. Although I’m sure the links won’t be clickable:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bion_(satellite)
www.wikiwand.com/en/Bion_(satellite)
Credit: Wikipedia/Wikiwand websites

A surprise to me, it's by the hand of Rick Guidice.
It’s beautiful of course, the colors, the ‘texture’, the clouds, their shadows, sun glint…exquisite.

You know, if festooned with another 15 - 20 ungainly antennas, 30+ meters of additional external wiring and several more spherical fuel tanks, one can almost picture Gagarin inside or Leonov egressing. 😉 In fact, if you slap on a couple of solar arrays, you've got a semi-Soyuz.
Note the DaVinci “Vitruvian Man” at the center of what I think is the battery module, which was also incorporated into the Skylab II mission emblem.
Curiously, note also the respective orientation of the flags of the U.S. & U.S.S.R. They are - appropriately enough - the opposite of each other. That is, the Stars & Stripes has the 'fly end' toward the center, whereas the hammer & sickle has the 'hoist' end toward the center. Furthermore, the flags of Romania & Poland are oriented as the U.S. flag is, while the flags of Czechoslovakia, France & Hungary/Magyarország are as that of the U.S.S.R.
If this was truly a "joint/cooperative” effort, all of the flags should’ve been oriented the same, no?
There's probably a 15-page MOU/MOA that took three days to arrive at regarding this trivial point.

At the following, where the depiction is identified as Bion no. 11. However, with all due respect to the proprietor of the excellent website, based on what (admittedly little) I know of the period of Mr. Guidice’s remarkable space/astronomy artwork, along with the photo paper’s watermark, I believe the print to be from the 1970s.

www.astronautix.com/b/bion.html
Credit: Astronautix website

Additionally, based on the identification of one of the images at the above, at:
www.astronautix.com/graphics/c/cosmo782.jpg
...and a mission date which falls within my guesstimated date range, this may be a depiction of Bion 3/Kosmos 782. This would actually make sense, it being the first Bion mission that the United States participated in. That would seem to merit being depicted by the likes of Mr. Guidice. 😉

See also:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_782
Also credit: Wikipedia

Furthermore, at the following link. BTW, Mr. Zak is incredibly knowledgeable regarding Soviet/Russian space…pretty much everything. Really quite impressive. I recommend taking a good look at his stuff, especially on Twitter. You won’t be disappointed:

www.russianspaceweb.com/bion.html
Credit: Anatoly Zak/RussianSpaceWeb.com website

Last, but not least. Unfortunately, with no amplifying information and at very low resolution:

rickguidice.com/nasaart/nasaarti.html

Specifically:

rickguidice.com/images/241_Untitled-51_edited-2.jpg
Credit: the website of Rick Guidice

Taken on: July 8, 2021

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Sets appears in: • Breaking The Bonds & Firsts • Satellites: Views By/Views Of more » • Miscellaneous Photos & Prints • The Godless Enemy: Then, Now & Always « less

Groups appears in: • Riding with Robots on the High Frontier • Space The Final Frontier more » • Mid-century Space Illustration • Space stuff « less

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