Nikolai N. Sheremetevsky

Biography

Professor Boris E. Chertok and Dr. Nikolai N. Sheremetevsky have made invaluable contributions to the Soviet/Russian space program, most notably the control systems of the Mir space station. For 15 years, research conducted on the Mir fostered breakthroughs in astronomy, space science, medicine and other disciplines.

During the Mir's development, Professor Chertok was responsible for the electrical energy and electronic systems of the orbital complex. His design of the orientation control system and the diagnostics system enabled the control of all onboard systems. Dr. Sheremetevsky championed the development of new gyroscopes to orient and stabilize both the Mir and Salute space stations. His teams developed gyroscopic control systems that achieved an accuracy of less than one degree/minute, a system that orients solar panels for a 90-kW power supply, and engines that provide automatic orientation of the ship's communications antennas.

Dr. Sheremetevsky joined the Scientific and Industrial Enterprise All-Russia (then All-Union) Research Institute for Electromechanics in Moscow in 1941. Hired as a researcher, he became head of the laboratory in 1949, first deputy director for research in 1954 and general director and general designer in 1974. From 1991 until his death in 2003, he served as the advisor to the Institute's director. Dr. Sheremetevsky was an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Hero of Socialist Labor, and he received the Lenin Prize in 1978.