MirCorp dumps Mir station 25
Chairboy writes "According to this press release, MirCorp (the company that was leasing space station Mir for commercial opportunities) is ending their involvement with Mir and concentrating on building a commercial lab module for the International Space Station. Looks like NASA's wish to get rid of legit competition in the station business has been answered.... This is unfortunate, Station Mir is a fully functional space station with more capabilities then the International Space Station at the moment. Because it's already there, lots of operations could have been done less expensively on Mir then the politically expedient ISS."
Re:Mir + SSA = ? (Score:1)
1. There are _quite a bit_ more interested parties than just the russians in the SSA, which means not only the russians would have to sort through the technical and economic problems involved in reusing Mir for SSA.
2. Of course im just guessing here, but it might just be cheaper (in terms both of money and time) to move and sanitize MIR a.o.t. building more modules/cubicles/whatever on SSA.
It's a great station... (Score:1)
Re:First Space Station (Score:1)
Now, if we could get it into a geophraphically stable orbit, you're got something. Completely depressurize it so you don't have to worry about explotion or fungus and let it drift until we can either use it or bring it back down to earth -- I'm talking in 80-100 years time. Like when seafarers would purposly sink old boats in shallow bays.. you never know.
Re:stupid reasoning (Score:1)
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Re:First Space Station (Score:1)
Re:Mir + SSA = ? (Score:1)
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Mir and Iridium (Score:1)
Oh, yeah, and first post.
Isn't Mir having lots of troubles? (Score:1)
Re:stupid reasoning (Score:1)
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Oh, no... (Score:1)
Re:Mir + SSA = ? (Score:1)
I'm all for the 'Viking Sendoff' approach, though. Strap on a booster and let 'er rip...
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Re:stupid reasoning (Score:1)
Same thing with Mir. Its not as new or comfey, but its already there. I for one don't take a sledge hammer to my old Athalon (pardon the AMD plun) just because I'm getting a new one. I USE the old one for other tasks
Cost of a project (Score:1)
Second, the cost of sending something in orbit is it's weight in gold. I don't know how much cash it represent that Mir station, but I would like to find it any other use that a killer firework.
One of those could be send it in geostationary for later usage, or even why not send on lunar orbit that Mir?? Huge propultion costs, but somewhere some people could live.
Maybe I'm only an Old Cracker Jack, but I definitively see future in space, starting by the moon.
By the way, I was thinking about designing ipv10, with dynamic routing table based on interplanetary minimum distance and bandwidth, combined with redundancy, anyone?
Let MIR die in peace. (Score:1)
A few questions.. (Score:1)
Another thing that is somewhat worrying is the 'space fungus' problem that is mentioned. Is the cause or origin of the fungus known to be something we tracked up on a mission, or did it come from somewhere else? If we brought it up, wouldn't it be prudent to know how it affects systems, how it spreads, and how to potentially eradicate it? If people are going to be living in the station, and if they really don't want to have to evacuate for some really dumb reason, we're going to need to know this. It seems like it would be a good learning experience to try to remove the fungus from Mir, with the idea that if it works, we have a technique, and if it fails, well, we lost a piece of junk that was going to be abandoned anyway.
One last thing that I wonder about is if Mir is still considered to be space-worthy in terms of mantaining atmospheric pressure and the like. If it is, or if it would be reasonable to make it such, wouldn't having it around for a backup plan be prudent? Assuming that it could be kept something like 100 meters away from ISS, wouldn't it be useful for such things as relatively hazardous materials (from/for experiments) storage, or emergency rations, or emergency fuel, or something? Turning Mir into a barge might be a little weird, but if the fungus doesn't eat everything and if the station doesn't depressurize, it could be useful to keep supplies around longer.
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
Re:stupid reasoning (Score:1)
Why start farming when we can continue hunting for food?
Short-sighted? I say yes.
With your argument why should we have ever left the cave. Do you have investments in some prime cave property?
First Space Station (Score:1)
Almost Right... (Score:2)
Also, Mir is very heavy (ok, massive to be more exact), having acreted many pieces over its lifetime. To boost it into a higher orbit that would last any significant length of time would take a lot of energy (i.e., money) that would be better spent on ISS.
Re:First Space Station (Score:2)
Re:How About the Old Viking Sendoff? (Score:2)
Yes, what a shame (Score:2)
It's absolutely terrible that the Mir would go unfunded. It almost burned down when we had Americans up there, it's becoming overrun by fungus, we hear American reports of a horrible musty smell throughout the station.
It's so far beyond its expected service life, it isn't even funny. While once a testament to human ingenuity and engineering skills, it is now an example of pointless human nostalgia which is being carried out at dangerous levels. Certainly it is historic equipment. But the place for admiration is not where its inhabitants will die if they make a minor mistake, it is in a museum.
Of course, if put on display, it should be decontaminated and aired out.
As an American citizen, my opinion of the Russion space station means absolutely nothing. However, I do not think that Americans should be pushing to hold missions on that station. I do not want American lives put in danger, and as far as I'm concerned, the Mir is ready to come hurtling down.
Thank you.
I do not belong in the spam.redirect.de domain.
Mir + SSA = ? (Score:3)
It's old, but valuable. YWe've got to remember that the Mir is one of only two working space stations currently in orbit, and the Mir has proved itself time and again.
Re:How About the Old Viking Sendoff? (Score:3)
Helm, reroute the Emergency power and life support to thrusters. We need to get the space station out of this planet's gravity well.
But, sir, there are hundereds of genetically mutated fungi onboard. We'd be spreading disease throughout the whole quadrant.
Doctor, what can you tell me about the lifeforms aboard that craft?
Dammit, I'm a doctor, Captain, not a mushroom farmer.
Och, Captain, she's breaking up. She canna take much more of this.
Screw it. Let it burn up on reentry.
Re:Mir + SSA = ? (Score:3)
For what it would take to change planes and do a rendezvous with Alpha, the Russians could reboost Mir to prevent its reentry many, many times over. And they're unwilling to do that even once more.
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How About the Old Viking Sendoff? (Score:3)
Strap some thrusters on it, some simple reinforcement, redirect most electrical to thrust, and send the sucker off. Skip life support. Guidance not strictly required. Maybe we fill it with cultural memorabilia first, just so the folks that find it will know what we taste like.
OTOH, maybe we could load the puppy up with biologics, frozen bacteria and algae ice cubes, and set Mir's course for the slow orbit to Mars, or Venus, or somewhere that life might stand a chance. Sure, it may take US another hundred years to get there, but it might be nice to have some kind of biosphere waiting.
Maybe we should load it with radioactive waste and drop it in a crater on the Moon.
I know, I know, I just hate to see waste...