Soviet-French Scientific and Technological Cooperation Aboard the Salyut-7 Space Station

The scope of this article is to cover two projects in the field of astrophysics and geophysics photography technology designed by French scientists and operated on board the orbital station Salyut-7 by a Soviet-French crew during the first joint cooperation programme, PVH (Premier Vol Habite, 24 June-3 July 1982). A scientific mission aiming at achieving biomedical, metall ally experiments and astronomical photography at a low earth orbit, PVH includes the development of prototypes instruments in each domain that would reach the objective of producing science on a global scale. Especially in astronomy and geophysics, observation and photography in the visible and near-infrared, made possible from space, required the innovation of a high sensitivity imaging cameras, called after their experiments PIRAMIG and PCN. Innovating technology consists then, in optimizating a photographic chamber developed previously for ballons observation programmes with higher sensitivity component, enabling the imaging of weak emission of light originated in the stratosphere and from the intergalactic medium. Light or energy are then captured and registered on high quality emulsion films that French cosmonaut Jean-Louis Chretien collected and returned to Earth for data analysis.