Lyappa arm

The Lyappa (or Ljappa) arm was a robotic arm used during the assembly of the Soviet/Russian space station Mir. Each of the Kvant-2, Kristall, Spektr and Priroda modules was equipped with one of these arms, which, after the module had docked to the core module's forward port, grappled one of two fixtures positioned on the core module's hub module. The module's main docking probe was then retracted, and the arm raised the module so that it could be pivoted 90 degrees for docking to one of the four radial docking ports.[1][2]

Lyappa arm on Mir mock-up at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

It was a mechanically driven arm used to move modules from the forward (or axial) docking ports which had rendezvous equipment fitted to the permanent radial docking ports. The arm mated with a socket located on Mir's multiple docking assembly node adjacent to the -XB end of the Base Block. Once connected, the module's main docking probe retracted and the arm raised the module so that it pivoted 90 degrees for docking to a radial port.[3]

  • Lyappa arm and attach fixture on Mir
  • Lyappa arm at the RKK Energiya museum
  • A diagram showing how the arm was used to relocate Kvant-2.
  • A diagram showing the Konus drogue and module movements around Mir's docking node

References
  1. David Harland (30 November 2004). The Story of Space Station Mir. New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc. ISBN 978-0-387-23011-5.
  2. David S. F. Portree (March 1995). Mir Hardware Heritage. NASA.
  3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-15. Retrieved 2012-02-11.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


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