(CNN ) -- Even though there are no Americans living on the Mir space station, the two-person cosmonaut crew is continuing to keep the station alive. The latest from Mir monitors in eastern Europe is that the crew of Talgat Musabayev and Nick Budarin is working mostly on science experiments. They're completing work on a biomedical experiment that was operated by the astronauts and is now in its final phase.

The space station is operating normally, according to the crew. There was an interesting upset two weeks ago when the station's smoke alarm went off. The crew found no fire or smoke but looked at the sensors on the 12-year-old space station and discovered they had never been replaced. They were shocked and asked for replacement smoke detectors the next time a supply ship comes up from Earth.

The crew reports the air conditioning is working, but that sometimes when it comes on, low air pressure alarms sound inside the station.

A replacement crew for the cosmonauts is scheduled to blast off for Mir in early August. The current crew is counting the days, while ground controllers say the Soyuz ship might lift off on August 11 or 13. The Russians are attempting to get every day possible out of every piece of equipment they send to Mir, and because the same Soyuz that brought the current crew to Mir will be used to bring them home, they want to make sure it is still flight-qualified.

The Soyuz ships have a lifetime of about six months, and time is running out for the escape ship for the current crew.

Glenn and Mercury memories

glenn Have you seen our special section on John Glenn? It's up and running with lots of information and graphics to bring you onto the flight deck of the shuttle. The url is http://cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/06/glenn/. Take a look. Some of you offered suggestions for improving the page, and we're working on them. Thanks for getting in touch.

As we get close to launch day for Glenn and his shuttle crew, we'll be talking with other members of the original 7 Mercury astronauts to get their feelings on the Glenn mission.

Launch day is October 29, and CNN is set to conduct its interview from orbit with the astronaut-turned-senator- turned-astronaut about halfway through the nine-day mission. More details on that as we get closer to October.

Searching for life's origins

Do you want to know if there's life on other planets? So does NASA. This week, there's a conference at NASA's Ames Research Center with the top scientists on astrobiology from all over the world. They're planning various missions to find out about the origin, the evolution and the destiny of life in the universe.

It's a conference on how we got here, and whether anybody else is out there. The group will propose what's needed to explore this topic in the future and what kind of technology will have to be developed to carry out the missions.

Name that space station

Want to help name the new International Space Station? There's a sweepstakes to find out what 9- to 13-year-olds want the station to be called. It's sponsored by Infoseek and US Space Camp. If you want to enter your name, you can get in touch with http://spacecamp.infoseek.com You may not get to name the station for real, but if the judges like your idea, you could win a trip to space camp.

In case you entered the contest to name NASA's great new observatory, the winner will be announced September 1. Right now, it's known by the acronym AXAF for Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility. It's going to look for X-ray radiation from space, and its developers say it could make the same kinds of discoveries as the Hubble Space Telescope.

The contest is sponsored by the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard. Here's where to go to find out who won: http://asc.harvard.edu/contest.html

They've asked me to help judge the contest, so I'll have the winning results here too.

Mars or bust; shuttle vers. 2.0

Want to go to Mars? Lots of people do, and NASA is considering proposals from 29 different groups of scientists and engineers on how best to get there for a few dollars and lot of innovation.

One of the proposals is an unpiloted plane that could fly low over the Martian surface and send us back close-up pictures of what's happening on the red planet. The designers of this plane say it could be launched as soon as December 17, 2003.

The next generation space shuttle is being tested right now by Lockheed-Martin in California. The X-33 plane is conducting flights using a half-scale model. If it works, the full-scale crew transport vehicle will make its first flight a year from now.

John Holliman's column appears on Wednesdays.

Visit CNN In-Depth's "John Glenn Rides Again"

Related stories:

Final tests of International Space Station modules - July 28, 1998
John Glenn easily performing demanding space training - July 23, 1998
The View from Space: America loses a hero - July 23, 1998

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