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First Privately Funded Manned Space Mission
Ragetech writes "CNN.com has a story about two Russian astronuts (yes, I say nuts) blasting off to dock with the Mir station to evaluate it, rescue and possibly operate it for profit. What I'm wondering, really, is why they don't pick up a few Iridum satellites while they're up there and really pick up the profits. I mean, that stuff is salvagable now, isn't it? "
I hate to tell everyone, but ummm you really can't see mir I mean even with a telescope ..
Actually it's pretty easy to see, looks like a fast moving, bright dot.
Every couple of weeks I grab the latest Orbital Elements, run some pass predictions, and see how it is doing. When it was manned, it was always cool to think how there were people living on that little dot in the sky. It gives me a thrill to think about it!
Nasa has a java applet which will do tracking and pass prediction, but you can find some normal software to do it as well.
Screw Iridium, BUY MIR!
The BBC has been covering this story for a few days. There's a good story here
The cosmonauts have almost no idea what they're going to find. The station has been unmanned for about six months. They have no idea whether it is still presurrised, whether the hull has been compromised or anything. Mir also needs to be *flown* by using it's gyros to keep the solar panels pointing at the sun. How well this is working now is anybody's idea. Rather them than me.
What's not mentioned in the CNN story is that MSFt has a majority interest in the corporation that's funding the space mission. They plan to retrofit Mir for Bill G to live in, move MSFT's corporate HQ there (to avoid the DOJ reprisals) since it's extra-national, and use all the satellites to bombard their enemies with.
Will in Seattle
Space, and rural roads should be governed by the salvage laws of the sea!
You abandon it, it reverts back to the chapter of law defined under "Finders Keepers caveat emptor".
Wanna leave that nice new Expedition stuck in a ditch by the side of the road? No prob! Me and the boys have some winches!
Wanna leave that space station unlocked? Well we'll just move in and squat!
Wanna leave a few satellites unattended? Fine! We need the Sci-Fi channel up here too!
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
a former communist country which has switched to the much touted capitalist sytem and is now mired in economic misery is the first nation to take a major step towards privatizing their space program.
er...
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A few years back, I read an autobiographical book called "Two Years Before the Mast". The author was an 1830s Harvard student who dropped out for a few years to become a sailor -- not an officer but a regular tar. It really opened my eyes to how different our attitudes towards safety are than our relatively near ancestors.
When they sailed around the tip of South America in July, they knew they'd have to make men climb up into rigging during a raging gale to wrestle bare handed with frozen rigging -- you simply can't control the ship without sending men aloft. It was no unusual thing to lose one or two sailors overboard during a voyage.
And this was routine travel. Exploration was an order of magnitude more dangerous.
In a sense, the "comsonuts" really have a more normal view of risk and safety than our own, when viewed against the backdrop of human history. I'm not saying they're right, but it's something to think about.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Refit Mir to be an orbiting data library, free of any national jurisdiction. Utilize the abandoned Iridium satellites so users worldwide can access it. Charge for Iridium-based net access, use profits to pay Mir operating expenses.
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As far as I know, MirCorp (the Holland-based consortium backing the mission) is mainly planning to make money by selling advertising space and by taking people up for a few days. The figure I've heard bandied about is around $600K/day. Although, they're being very tight-lipped about who, if anybody, is signed up to go ... which I tend to suspect means that they don't have any committed clients. That is why the RSA is being circumspect about the role of the cosmonauts up there right now - they might just fix some things and come home having prepared the Mir to go swimming in the Pacific, or they might stay up to get the place ready for guests.
Another thing that troubles me is that Energya is one of the largest members of MirCorp. As we all know, Energya (which has very tight connections to the Russian government) has significant motives other than profit to see the Mir stay in orbit, i.e. national/corporate pride, plus the possibility of revenue from a continuing stream of resupply missions to the station. In short, it's worth a lot to them for political and economic reasons, regardless of whether MirCorp ever succeeds in getting people up there.
I've seem lots of complaints about the safety of Mir, here and elsewhere. I might point out that, for the most part, there's nothing wrong with Mir that a good fixing-up and a regularly changed crew wouldn't solve. Yes, it leaks air, but not as fast as the Shuttle; plus, it doesn't leak corrosive volatiles like hydrazine, which the shuttle does. I heard that Energya, in fact, had considerable safety concerns with docking the shuttle to Mir for just these reasons, out of worry that the assorted stuff the Shuttle puts out might damage the station. As for the fire, etc, this mostly had to do with ancient equipment up there, which should certainly be replaced - and will be, if MirCorp can come up with the kind of money it seems to believe it can.
Quantum mechanics: the dreams that stuff is made of.
havne't seen this here yet.
MirCorp is at www.mirstation.com
They do confirm backing by the eerily named Gold and Appel Transfers Fnord. I really wonder if that is a complete coincidence or just a very rich baby boomer with a sense of humor.
They also have some info on the the crazed fools (or visionarys) backing Mir Corp. Why does everything about this remind me of Heinleins 'Man who sold the moon'?
Good luck to em, personally if it gets things happening in space sooner I don't mind even if mir ends up plastered in golden arches and windows logos.
Yes, I'm sure Hemos is aware of the fact that "picking up some Iridium satellites while they're up there" is a silly idea. But for the humor impaired, here's why -
Conclusion: why bother? It would be a very expensive, very silly operation. Though now that I think about it, Red Hat might be interested. Rearrange their orbits just right, and they'd flash "LINUX" in the evening and morning sky every 90 minutes around the world. I envision Redmond being the first target. :-)
Quantum mechanics: the dreams that stuff is made of.