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Mir Reactivation Mission to Launch Monday
Anonymous Coward writes "According to this article in Aerotech News and Review as well as information on the Space Frontier Foundation web site, a mission to reactivate Mir for commercial purposes is scheduled to launch April 3rd or 4th and dock with Mir on the 6th. The mission is being launched by Holland-based MirCorp in preparation for scientific experiment, space-tourism, and in-orbit advertising."
Yes friends, Mir is going to become a Hotel.
From what I gathered on the first article I read, it's not going to be cheap. (Duh) Basically, you take a ride up there, hang out for a few days, and take a ride back. Space Vacation. (WooHoo!)
Read about it here, and here.
Oh! Coincidentally, check this out:
2000-02-18 15:40:56 Mir Space Station to become Hotel (articles,space) (declined)
2000-02-18 19:13:39 Mir Space Station to be made into Hotel (articles,space) (declined)
*Sigh*, At least now I can finally claim I knew about something before it hit Slashdot. (I never used to be able to do that, but lately.....)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Something important to consider is that the Soviet/Russian space program has a much better safety record then the United States.
Three Cosmonauts died during their return from Salyut 1 when an atmospheric recompression valve opened early (they suffocated), and one Cosmonaut died when his capsule failed to deploy parachutes and impacted the ground at 100+ miles per hour.
The United States, on the other hand, has spent far fewer hours total in space and has lost 10 Astronauts (vs. 4 in the Soviet/Russian space program). Three Astronauts in Apollo 1, and seven in the Challenger incident.
Also, for perspective, the air leak currently on Mir (it's going to be the #1 planned priority once the Cosmonauts dock) is leaking less air then any of the Space Shuttles leak during a normal mission. It's true, the Space Shuttle Orbiters are much leakier then Mir.
Also, during the planning for the Shuttle-Mir missions in the mid 90's, Energia-RSA (the Soviet/Russian space industry) had very strong objections to the following:
1. Sending up Russian Cosmonauts on the Space Shuttle, which they consider unsafe because there is no abort option for the entirety of the solid rocket booster burn (From liftoff to 2.5 minutes later, if anything goes wrong, everyone dies. No matter what.)
2. Docking the shuttle w/ Mir because the shuttle is notoriously leaky in orbit (not just air, but also volatile Hydrazine from the RCS) and they were concerned it would damage Mir.
Finally, the total cost MirCorp paid for the three launches to Mir (One Soyuz, two Progress cargo launches) is $18 million. The total cost for a single space shuttle launch is $500 million. A cost/benefit analysis should say something.