Slashdot Mirror
Mir Likely To Be Deorbited [Updated]
Decibel writes: "It seems that Mir's fungal infection is soon to be the least of its problems. Unless $7-10 million can be raised in the next few days, Mir will be de-orbited some time after its 15-year anniversary in February 2001. MirCorp has been financing the operation of the outpost since the Russian government abandoned it last year, but they've run out of money as well. To make matters worse, unless the russian government (or someone else) comes up with $60 million to make two final missions to Mir, it will be an uncontrolled reentry. Of course, if any of that fungus survives reentry, it could be a moot point anyway. :)" But what about the Destination Mir teevee show?! Surely NBC has 7 or 10 million to toss in the pot, considering they've already paid more than that for rights to the show.
[Updated 3 Oct 2000 21:30 GMT by timothy] funk_phenomenon writes: "To add another story to the Mir fire, James Cameron (the man who directed Terminator 2 and Titanic) is planning to stay on the space station. He has already undergone medical tests at the Russian Institute for Medical and Biological Problems and received a go ahead. Cameron went to see the Titanic and he made a movie; maybe he plans the same?"
Use The Source, Luke!
Wait... no, I don't want it to land in my back yard. BAADDD Space Fungus. Back. BACK!!! *CHOMP*
then there will soon be a lot of pregnant nympho-voluptuous amazon women from space.. it's all one big plot. 3 years ago there was a terrible tragedy on venus, eradicating all males. the women reverted to their fungal state to migrate to earth. arrived on earth the first thing they do is attack each and every rubber in sight: no more condoms. (the pope rejoices) having crippled a large part of humanity's anticonceptional measures, they will then proceed to fuck each and every geek on this planet, creating much offspring of their race. Earth will be overrun in 3 weeks.
or maybe not..
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
It currently costs $10,000 per pound to send material into space. Seems to me that the cost and time it would take to gradually (over the next few years) move the MIR into an orbit alongside the IIS would pay off greatly in the long run. With the use of solar furnace, the MIR could be melted into the raw materials of the next Mars missions. Seems a few $million to add a recyling plant to the IIS might pay off in the long run.
Now all I have to do if get them to drop it somewhere more convienient than the Atlantic ocean. Hmm, Africa might do...
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
*Breathe*...
Comrade M and I will calm down and then proceed to blow the Kremlin to bits with our Ion Cannon.
From Mir with Love!
------------------------
------------------------
Thus Spake ComradePenguin
How tragic that NASA had to be subjected to the humiliation of Russia's having an operational international space station for the last 15 years! Now, if only we can expunge all memory of MIR, might be able to bilk, er, appropriate even more money for NASA's one, true and ONLY International Space Station!
Seastead this.
Surely this is chump-change for any government to come up with... sure russia is poor, but even our sad little country on the ass-end of the planet (New Zealand) can afford to throw away five times that amount on failed government IT projects.
I have to admit i don't have $10 million sitting in my back pocket, but surely they could sell a couple of nukes to iraq or something to cover the shortfall?
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
Probably 99% of it burns up in the atmosphere (AHHH...The Atmosphere...AHHHH). thank you, I just spat beer all over my laptop.
It's really quite a shame that, while governments around the world can spend billions of dollars putting these things into orbit, they are unwilling to spend the money to bring them down. Don't you think Sputnik, or Skylab, even Mir deserve to be in the Smithsonian, or the Russian equivalent. These are historically relevant artifacts, but the first two have already been burnt up, and it seems the third is not far behind.
Sickman's spinfusor catches Anonymous Coward by surprise.
Here it is, approaching Halloween time. Does anyone know what will happen to the fungus if mixed with Worcestershire sauce? That episode of South Park is looming in my mind...
I havn't read the book in years, but I thought the implication was that the government was intentionally retrieving organisms from the upper atmosphere/space that no human would have immunity to.
-B
That is two stories on MIR in one day. When is slashdot finally going to give MIR its own section and coresponding icon? MIR is more than just 'Space' and it deserves better.
damn, i knew i forgot something (hadn't seen that one in a while). the fungi on mir will cause as rampant epidemic of pink eye that will be blamed on a condiment company.
Yeah, if NBC really wanted ratings, why not shoot the cast of their worst new show of the fall into space and then de-orbit in the Mir? Or, to get Veronica's Closet off the air once and for all, their worst show of the season (by the ever-accurate Nielson ratings). Who the hell did Kirstie Alley sleep with to get the job-for-life at NBC?
Personally, I'd love to be stuck on an island with Jenna and Colleen. Although watching stuff hatch out of her legs was a bit of a turnoff.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
Has anyone else noticed the lag Slashdot has in getting the news out lately? The fungus story was in New Scientist a month or more ago, and this latest update about James Cameron was posted to Space.com last week (which I found from the Space.com Slashbox on the front page).
Jesus, you'd think that /. would pay attention to the common sources of information from which people submit stories. How irritating is it to tune in and see media stories that have been around for a month recapped on /. like they're something new? Does this mean the crew is working on a new software release, or just buried under the load of submitted stories? No news is better than old news.
The only certainty is entropy.
Great, now the whole mir will be bombarded by mirs of mir...
Most likely.
But maybe not. It may be a super fungus worse than an airborne flesh eating Ebola virus. We gotta burn Mir in space... and maybe the Cosmonauts too.
If it takes 7-10 million just to maintain the Mir from earth, there still going to need 30 million to send someone there(60,000,000 for 2 trips).
So why would someone sink 7-10mil into something thats going to need 30 more mill for use PLUS who knows how much for onboard repairs.
I hope someone can find away to keep the mir, but It's probably time to say good bye.
I wonder if on one of our already planned shuttle launches, we can make the changes neccesary to allow them to controll re-entry, or push it up to a really high orbit, just to see what the really long term effects of space will have on it. It could let us know what the space station is in for, then we can put preventitive measures in place. Who would of guessed there would be this kind of fungus problem 10 years ago?
well, besides Chriton.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
about the next SST mission: ferrying a 150 gal container of Lysol disinfectant to mir, with the mission specialist being a janitor. "I told 'em 18 years ago this was going to happen unless they get some professional custodial services in there", said Ivan DuVal, top ranking member of the former Soviet Union Air Force's 97th building custodial squadron. "'Dem space heads is too busy wit dem space 'speriments to properly clean the toilets, and I'm sure the floors need a real good scrubbin' and waxin'". But Paul's long held dream of a space mission to 'do it right' looks like it may never come about, as the lack of a proper sanitation regime has lasted so long the only option is the incinerate the entire station in the earth's atmosphere.
At least they don't have space-roaches in the galley.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
the next location for Survivors!
Rick B.
And infect the moon with agressive fungi in the process?
----------------------------------------------
the pun is mightier than the sword
One of the long-standing complaints of the ISS consortium is how Energia and the Russian space agency have continued to support Mir while they have allowed deadlines for the ISS to slip. It would perhaps be advisable for the ISS to come up with the funds to de-orbit the facility--if for no other reason than because it'd be a cheap (only $60 mil) way to rid the program of a major distraction, and doing so would probably save them money in the long run.
I think this should not be a feature.
UBU
This situation kinda reminds me of this cartoon. Substitute your favorite four letter acronym ending with "AA" at your leisure.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
What is this irrational hatred toward fungus?. Fungi are our freinds, their cousins yeast make our beer, and the bioremediation possibilites of waste metal degrading bacteria are huge. Yeah Im a nasty genetic engineer and proud of it
First you had the high... now you've got the Low-Earth-Orbit high. High enough for you?
-- Soruk
Heck, I've had more advanced lifeforms evolve in my fridge and I live alone. I'll clean it when they demand equal rights.
Can't NASA just send up an enormous vial of One-Step Canasten?
--
--
The gravitational constant of protein has changed. - Turbine
EXTREMELY funny! :)
Built for astronauts, strong enough for Mir.
maybe because.....
the ISS is US gov't pork-barrel at its best?? And it doesn't do anything? And it sucks?
It's worse than that: if the Russians don't keep making payments to the Inertial Bank, Isaac Newton is going to foreclose on Mir's kinetic energy, and then he's going to use its potential energy to pay off all of the other investors.
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
If it's going to cost $60 million to shove it a few hundred miles back to Earth (with a gravity assist even!). It's going to cost way more than that to move it a quarter of a million miles to the moon and soft-land it!
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wagn'nagl dominos.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
Not a shield, a surfboard!!!
Remember Dark Star?
Hacker: A criminal who breaks into computer systems
"Information wants to be paid"
the survivor TV show had huge ratings, and the mere million they gave the winner is a tiny, tiny portion of ad revenues for that #1 rated show.
a mir space survivor TV show, where you get to know the cosmonauts, and watch them take space challenges like drinking tang as it flies around the room in zero g, or spacewalk first around the station, then finally as they are ejected into space after being voted off, would be huge. :)
________
OK.... predicted is stretching it a tad... But in the movie Creepshow, a meteorite hits earth and a strange mold/fungus/something takes over his house (King was the actor in this segment). Creepy....
thank you, I just spat beer all over my laptop.
Kids, let this be a lesson to you: drinking and computing don't mix. Well, unless it's been a REALLY long day.
Hmmm. Moldy space station about to be 'de-orbited'... maybe they should shoot the whole show on Mir, and let the winner leave right before the de-orbiting... Now -that- would be a show worthy of being called Survivor ;)
-as
What Future?
NAH !! Feeding to the fungus is TOO pedestrian. Give them a spacesuit with 28 hours of air, a Xena sized sheild covered with anti-ablatement tiles,
:>D
and push them out of the airlock and see if they get back to earth.
THAT would be surviving !
Also, there is the solar wind. All the particles streaming out of the sun push against the MIR. That both slows it and pushes it toward earth. This was one of the stated reasons that Skylab finally fell in the drink...
i prefer the term crash and burn
And kill the bacteria with an industrial version? Or a series: Mr. Clean goes to Mir! Mynn the Museless
Face it, people are stupid, and the internet is the place where they all meet.
Isn't that the one with the horrible ending. One of the worst ending's I've read... Don't read the next line if you plan on reading it:
.sigs??
The contagon just mutates and isn't harmful. That's Crichton just stumped and making a deadline...
-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Then you'd get sued by the Russians for taking apart the piece of spaceship that crashed into your house and writing drivers for it.
come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
Maybe this would be an excellent opportunity for Desenex to do some advertising! They could send up a guy to fumigate the place with spray powder and then put a big banner outside. "Desenex saved MIR!"
That would rock
I'm on a chair.
Why not scrounge up a couple million, and make some scientists come up with a quick and dirty way to set Mir down on the Moon without breaking it too much. If they can set it down without breaking it, they will have shelter on the surface of the moon for future missions.
Also, that way, a part of history gets preserved forever, even if it does end up in a few pieces.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
What color does fungi and rust burn?
Am I the only one reminded of The Andromeda Strain when I read the Mir articles?
I say that we don't de-orbit Mir. I say that we launch a Progress freighter with really powerful retro-rockets and enough C4 to blow the Empire State Building in half. When Mir is more than 1 AU away from Earth, we blow that building-sized petri dish to smithereens!
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
This may be a little off topic, but I'm posting it anyway.
I don't believe it was an intentional retrieval of organisms. It was more of a what if some organisms were accidentally captured. In this story, the organism caused blood to become a gel. If the acidity of your blood was over a certain point, you gained immunity from the effects (hence, the crying baby and the old man who was an alcoholoic survived the infection). The organism was also a perfect energy user--it generated no waste product. That is why they had to stop the atomic bomb fail-safe from exploding since that much energy consumed by such an organism would have been disaterous.
The fungus is terrestrial in origin! That means that it came from Earth. The only reason it's called "space fungus" is because it's in space right now.
If Saddam really wanted some of this stuff he probably wouldn't have to look any farther then the nearest dumpster!
"Let's go to the colonies!" -MirCorp flying advertisement pod
actually it's being de-orbited to make way for a new hyperspace bypass...
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
VA Linux should buy MIR and raffle it off to someone who joins OSDN. They could paint it green and Geeks in Space could truly be Geeks _IN_ Space.
OT, but do you think the mold on MIR is from a leftover piece of Pizza Hut pizza?
then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way
How about a spin off of the popular 'Survivor' TV show. Contestants would live on the space station and instead of being voted off the island, they'd be fed to the Fungus.
Of course the logistics would have to be worked out, but it could work!
Here we come!
Living Microsoft Free: 27 years and counting.
How?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Y'know, you'd think a private corporation would pay good money to have a hold on space. You could move Micro$oft HQ up there and decalre the company to be immune to our petty earthling laws. C'mon, Billy-boy, buy the space station... it's just pennies in the bucket to you.
"Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
Every time I read a Mir story, I'm reminded of twistedtunes' song parody, Spacestation Oddity. 28.8 quality, ISDN quality. (Hope these links work. I'm not able to test them right now.)
overlay the entire earth with a giant grid. Let people buy different grid coord. for money and wherever it lands, that person gets all the cash!
Just like a giant game of Cow Pie Bingo! You know where they section off a football field, turn the cow loose.......nevermind.
Why not de-orbit the thing staright at the sun, maybe get some more data as it goes in.
:)
Or crash it into Mars, then maybe we WILL find life there..
There are numerous over the counter and prescription antifungal medications to cure the fungal infection. Perhaps they should have a mission where they cover the whole thing with some antifungal topical cream, or if it's an internal fungal infection, use some Monistat-7.
-- queef
Is that fungi internal or external? How would they deal with it? Or is that the main mission the astronauts are training for?
"Comarade Miyagi, are you sure this is really astronaut training?"
"Tat tat! I promise teach spacemanship, you promise obedience. Now, once again. Spray Lysol, wipe off. Spray Lysol, wipe off."
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
So, you think that because you're AC, Taco doesn't know who you are? Well, he knows...
I am sure (although I don't have references handy) that MIR has provided lots of useful research
Loads - Through MIR, the Russians know more about long-term exposure to a microgravity habitat than anyone. They've worked on exercise devices designed to try and counteract these effects - lack of muscle tone, loss of calcium from bone structure, etc. They also know more about the psychology of long-term space habitation than anyone else. (I believe they had a captain on Mir who went a bit mad after a while?)
Make no mistake, the research done by the Russians with MIR will be invaluable, not only for people on the ISS, but for any long term space flight - i.e. going to Mars.
Hacker: A criminal who breaks into computer systems
"Information wants to be paid"
I'd be happy to fly one of the ASAT missions.
It's Linux, damnit! Pay no attention to renaming attempts by self-aggrandizing blowhards.
The subject line says it all
Better yet. Here's something to get better ratigns than "Survivor" did. Heck, we may even call it "Survivor II: Lost in Space" (and even get Billy Mumy to participate somehow!).
Lock all of the contestants inside MIR, and *after* locking them up, explain to them that there's 8 of them and enough space inside the rescue shuttle for 7 people.
Every week you decide who gets to escape MIR, and then the losing one will go down with it. How's that for ratings?
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
why waste 1 space station and horde of super hi-tech satelittes , why not use the parts of the iridium satelites (solar panel(power),processors (on board computer upgrade) , communication componants to upgrade Mir com capabilities ) etc etc payload is so expensive to bring up that it is most part of the cost of equipement ... just buil stuff neccessary (like a rod to connect all solart panel to or whatever ) on earth and use the parts already there
puting a gram of stuff in space then buying a gram of gold
How long before Mir goes for sale on Ebay :)
u know it deos except if you do would u mind giving me a heads up? working for a non profit in seattle and would love to know if I am going to get pummpled. Russians aren't great with their accuracy.
Now would it really? Or does it just make really big holes?
I mean, impact craters are CRATERS simply because a tiny object, is hitting a MUCH bigger object with
1. Probably greater structural integrity
2. Much more mass.
With a screw hitting a shuttle or MIR, isn't it more likely to act like a REALLY fast bullet, and
1. Punch a really big hole through a wall
2. Continue through the astronaut sitting on the console on the other side of the wall
3. Punch itself outside the other wall on the opposite side of the crap
Assuming
1. There isn't some REALLY massive object in it's way like a packed Nuclear reactor.
2. There's no fuel for the thing to detonate.
-Chris
That's not bad, considering that only eight years ago, 10 rubles was worth 8 cents.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Fungus *IS* interesting.
:)
Well ok....I find fungus to be interesting.... along with plants, animals, virii etc etc.
What they really need up there is to get rid of the penecillium and get some ergot going. Then sell tickets to mir
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Michael Crichton was launched into space by the CIA (go the CIA!) to plant a fungus ("plant" a fungus?) on MIR.
Hopefully they'll deorbit Crichton and release him into the goddamn atmosphere.* I sure am sick of his movie novels that open with a good premise, become amazingly predictable within two chapters, and dare you to read them all the way through the same way your buddies in college dared you to drink an entire bottle of ketchup.
* Bonus points for reference-catching.
I mean, Mir crashing down onto Redmond, Washington, just has a strange sort of appeal to it, doesn't it?
NOOOO!!! Not Nintendo!!! Sure, the Game Cube may not look GREAT, but that's no reason to destroy a city!!!!!
Oh wait, maybe you're talking about a different company...
"The dynamics is quite complicated, so if you are
far enough away, then you can run away from
Earth due to gravitational effects (IIRC that's
what's happening to Moon, sloowly)."
Yes, but you have to be already further out than geostationary orbit, and quite massive to do that - massive enough to cause significant tidal bulges on the Earth which then revolve around the Earth faster than you do, so the bulges tug you forward, and out.
I want to see what happens when you have a double planet where both planets are spinning rather quickly and both are orbiting outside each other's geostationary radius. Wouldn't they recede from each other very quickly?
What if you have two planets orbiting each other, one rotating slowly, the other quickly, so A is inside B's geostationary radius, but B is outside A's? Seems to me the orbit would stay pretty much the same, but the faster spinning planet would transfer some of its rotational momentum to the other planet? Might that be what the Earth and Moon were like long ago?
Too bad the Russians never completed their space shuttle fleet. It would be neat if they had the spacecraft, and money, to send crews up to dismantle MIR, section by section, and bring the sections back down in the cargo bays of shuttles, to be re-assembled on the ground and kept in a museum.
It lasted precisely as long as the funding did - just like MIR. When Skylab was coming down, I remember a local reporter asking a Civil Defense guy if they were ready for the worst case scenario here. Namely, Skylab direct hitting the Prudential building. Boston couldn't BE so lucky to have that happen. God, what egos people have here. But I still crack up when I remember that news report...
The Andromedia Strain started out killing people (hence the reason that Crichton got a whole book out of it). Only later did the bacteria/virus (i don't remember which) mutate to eat rubber.
So, maybe the fungus from MIR will mutate from something that eats rubber/other materials to something that kills *everybody*.
oh well, one can always hope.
"I don't need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines." - Mr. Furious, Mystery Men
--
The shareholder is always right.
Maybe if they could use one of these little gravity control devices they could keep the thing in Orbit forever?
http://www.keelynet.com/gravity/sk1.htm
"Phase 1 [ over by 2002 ] : 5 % weight change [ increase as well as decrease ] for Satellite positioning, orientation and accelerating vehicles in space. "
To make that kinda money you better sell some "special" brownies. Otherwise I just can't see it happening.
He wanted to go up there, ya know.
Sounds like yet-another-episode of Russian space program blackmail (they've periodically asked for overseas funding for their part of the ISS, if memory serves).
Maybe if they could track down some of those funds that were laundered through the Bank of NY, or perhaps some of the Swiss accounts connected to the Yeltsin family, they could find a lot more than $7-$10 million.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
since when is a foreign fungal outbreak that corrodes/eats through plastic and metals a laughing matter?
:) too...
hell, watch the Mir land in the deserts of Iraq, Saddam get some scientists working on the fungus, and using it in conjunction with a biological weapon so that it eats through the masks and protective clothing so that our soldiers and normal people die.
yea, i'll end this with a
Well - Mir may be not long for this world. But it lasted precisely HOW many years longer than Skylab? (anyone else remember watching out for 14 ton refrigerator units to drop in their garden? :-)
Which meaning of "MIR" do you mean?
Mir--peace
Mir--world
=P
I think the point is that if they can't meet the deadline for financing a take down, it'll just reenter on it's own. If they do have the money to plan a controlled reentry, then all is well in the world. It's not like it will die anytime soon, obviously they expect it to survive till 2001. Oh, wait. That aint too far off :)
treke
Didn't some Japanese company want to turn MIR into a hotel? With the current descriptions on /., it sounds more like a Motel 6.
open mind: teaching computers the stuff
The objective is to be voted out before your entire body is eaten away, or you explode in a gigantic fireball, when Mir smashes into the Earth's atmosphere.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
"So, Tom, it's your third day up there. How's it going?"
"It's full of stars!"
"finger pavel@gnu.org" to find my address.
I don't think the previous poster was saying that if this screw hit mir (or whatever) that it would explode like 500 tons of TNT, just that it would have the same amount of kinetic energy as the explosives would. That energy could be transfered in a number of ways (right?).
:)?
BTW, where do you find out cool stuff like the amount of KE in tnt
Here's an idea: have Mir take out an Iridium satellite or two on its way down. Sorta two birds (so to speak) with one stone.
Shouldn't that be +1?
That gets into the theory of karma relativity - one person's Troll is another's Funny, and for some the two are equivalent. Really, moderation categories should be decoupled from their sign. It's just basic design factorization!
That would be a bad thing. I live very close to the MS Campus (about 500 yards). My house would be pummeled in the giant fireball that would ensue, not to mention th enormous blackhole that would open up and be centered bascally next to my house to to the lack of bugs in the software industry. Truly though - MIR has outlived it usefulness - its dying and deserves a "noble" death of guided reentry (but not on Redmond, plz! :-))
--matt Cowger
Neither is yours, bl'adugan.
-- Anne Marie
There is a unit called "ton TNT" that is not necessarily exactly the explosive power released by one ton of TNT. If I remember it correctly, it's typically defined as a billion calories. I got two trillion joules for my example, so roughly divide by four to get calories then a billion to get tons TNT, and that makes 500.
I'm basically remembering this from something I read in a physics newsgroup a long time ago, so you'd probably best not take my word for it.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Sounds like you're talking about a specific kind of fungi there... ;>
YHBT YHL HAND
Ya fuckwit. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
jonkatz@slashdot.org
Obviously you don't know how to use "finger" :-/
Never mind.
Nonsense, pavel.
-- Anne Marie
Perhaps you didn't notice the stock market yesterday? Go to COREL's website.... Corel and Microsoft have formed a famous microsoft 'strategic alliance'
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
Maybe this can be the grand finale in the firework show when they burn up the Iridium satellites... :)
At first, I misread that as, "burn up with the Iridium satellites..."
I think that by breeding the strain of fungus that has the slashdot coloration (the #006666 strain), we can save a bunch of money on the painting costs. Just launch that succer in space, and let 'er mutate!
Ñ'
---------------------------------
The first thing that comes into my twisted mind is the janitor saving the galaxy from some evil alien race...
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
Like you said -- read the article on the fungus. It was mutating and is no longer just terrestrial.
--
Infuriate left and right
Here's the link to sign-up and win your trip to the jolly green sattelite. NBCi Win a trip to Mir.
Network television leading the way for getting civilians in space.
The satellite was called SCOOP. It was a secret project by the US governement to collect extraterrestrial biological matter (to be used as "germ warfare"). Why do you think they had the spiffy undergrond laboratory? The book makes this way more clear than the movie. The satellite caught something and somehow accidently de-orbitted. Landed in a little town, the local DR. opened it up and everyone's blood solidified. You know the rest. Everyone on earth died and the universe lived happily ever after.
Mir means both "world" and "peace" in Russian (hence "War and Peace" may have been better translated as "War and the World").
I have to hand it to them; nothing is more peaceful than the fiery enferno incurred by reentering the atmosphere of one's namesake.
-- Anne Marie
Instead of a show where the winner gets sent to Mir, how about having one (especially for those of us who hate these kinds of 'fad' shows) where people are stuck all over the world in Mir's projected descent ring, with the loser having to stand outside with a catcher's mitt?
Better yet, since they seem so concerned by the ratings, and most of us hate them, why not populate the projected path with executives from TV networks and advertising agencies? I'd sit down to watch, hell, I'd even *pay* good money to see *that*!
On the other hand, it could evolve into something looking almost, but not quite as unattractive as, say... Roseanne Barr.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
And starts a new space colony involving monkies writing Windows 2005 code. Gates has firmly stated that 10,000 monkies should be able to put together the Windows 2005 kernel (aptly named as Code Name : Monkey business) in less than 3 years by making available to them 10,000 keyboards and dumb Windows Terminal Clients. Gates suggests that even if they write things that doesnt make sense (which their programmers do in Seattle after taking LSD for lunch) one out of 1000 monkeys should write a valid subroutine in three months. He further stated that he would be staying at Mir himself to avoid any potential Law suits and would screen visitors for Janet Reno look alikes, and from now on would be wearing Face masks resembling Darth Vader to support Slashdot claims that he is really Darth Vader.
In a related news Hackers have decrypted Windows 2000 binary to reveal underlying source code which looks like this :
#include Windows31.h
#include Windows95.h
#include Windows98.h
#include BillRules.h
#include JanetRenosucks.h
for (i=1 to 10000000)
{
//ping linux servers on the network every five seconds to bring them down
//bring up messageboxes telling the user how dumb he is
//scan the users harddrive for childporn and send them to janet reno
//do nothing
}
Msgbox "Your server would selfdestruct in five seconds"
Rapid Nirvana
One of the computers on our office's network is named "Mir." It crashed last week, and needed a new motherboard. I'll ask our IT guy if it was eaten by fungus.
I vote we give Jon Katz a one way ticket.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Basically, the atmosphere gets thinner the higher up you go, but it never disappears entirely. At Mir's altitude, it's nearly not there, but there's still enough drag to make a difference. We're not talking like an airplane, where the engine must go constantly, but more like a minor boost once a year or so.
Your physics professor was indeed talking about an ideal model. It's close enough to reality over a period of days or weeks, depending of course on how high you are (the recent Shuttle radar mapping mission was low enough that they had to boost every day!) but it doesn't hold forever.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
During recent hearings on space in the Duma, Yuri Semenov, warned that unless federal funds were allocated to Mir, the station can reenter the atmosphere uncontrollably and crash anywhere, including populated areas.
Quick! Check your Homeowner Policies now! Are you protected against uncontrolled re-entrance by manmade satellites?
Could you claim this under "Acts of God?" (common in homeowner policies) or could that claim be refuted because Mir is man-made?
Since Mir is government-sponsored item, you effectively are barred from filing a liability suit against them, but what about the Iridium sattelites?
I'm tempted to become an insurance rep, just for the 1 in 9,000,000,000,000 chance that I might process the claim form.
So why will not having cash in the bank tomorrow suddenly make it plunge into the atmosphere? Is someone going to unglug the extension cord to Earth? Are the space landlords going to evict them? Is galactic collections going to show up and reposses their oxy generation unit?
All spacecraft suffer orbital drag from gravitational and magnetic anomalies in the body they're orbiting, friction with the upper atmosphere/interstellar medium, solar flares...
Every "stable" orbit will eventually decay unless the orbiting body is captured by another one passing by. Skylab's orbit decayed in a relatively short time back in the 70s -- I think back then a lot of the mechanisms weren't well-understood. Many satellites carry maneuvering fuel to extend their orbital life, but they eventually run out of fuel and de-orbit as well. If a critical satellite is stranded in an orbit that's about to start reaching the fringes of the ionosphere, sometimes they send the Shuttle up to tow it back out.
Basically, Mir is out of gas and coasting to a stop, just as any vehicle would.
-- Old Man Kensey
I forgot your question about space junk.
The answer is that junk falls out of orbit too. However, it probably stays up there longer because it's denser (a fragment of metal weighs more for its size than does a big tube of metal filled with air). If we were to stop launching things into orbit, the junk in low orbit would probably be gone in a few decades, but we're not looking like we'll stop any time soon.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
It's easy (I think). There's not much air up there so no friction or anything. MIR is pulled towards Earth because of gravity. However, it's moving round so falling down doesn't bring it any closer to Earth. So long as the velocity round the Earth (would that be horizontal with respect to us?) is correct the distance the MIR never falls.
The thing is, this isn't perfect for a number of reasons. That's what the thrusters (which need fuel) are for. IIRC, the MIR actually moves slightly too slowly so it needs fuel to move outwards.
I don't know whether MIR is geostationary or not -- if the distance between Earth and the orbiting body is correct (36,000km???) it will always be above the same point on Earth as well.
HTH,
Ciaran
Isn't anyone worried worried about the fungus mutating because of cosmic rays and causing a repeat of the blob when Mir crashes down. The blob was a documentary right?
- WeaselGod
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet turbines
Just thought any discussion of MIR and its possible futures should include an url to "Survivor IV: Mir to Mars" at http://popcornculture.com or IFILM.com The parody predates any announcements for "Destination Mir" and is rumored by many to be the seed of it's inspiration.
I'm wondering how many years that Mir has been up in space. It seems that there are just too many problems with it, and the Russian government could better spend their money by building a new space station or something than trying to maintain Mir. But I'm probably wrong...
-MSD.dyndns.org
"Sucks to your ass-mar"
(dramatic orchestral music, serene views from space)
(fade in) In 1997, James Cameron brought you to the depths of the ocean..
(fade in underneath) Now comes a new adventure, that boldly goes above and beyond, higher...
(cut, music swells)
"Saturn V booster, right ahead!" (alarms sound)
Mission Control: "The station can stay habitable with four compartments evacuated, you have five ruptured!"
Astronaut 1: "Commander, don't you understand? Space is freezing, and there aren't enough suits. Half the people on the station are going to die!"
Cosmonaut Cmdr: "Not the better half..."
(CGI astronauts/cosmonauts float around)
(closeup of Leo's helment glass slowly cracking, hissing) "Oh, shit!"
(rapid montage, music swells then fades)
(cue celine dion music)
Every ninety minutes, you circle the earth
That is how i know you de-orbit
All across the atmosphere you burn up, you flare up
And your many mutant fungi will go on.
Near, far, in orbit above
I believe that the thing will fall...
Summer 2003.
Maybe they can get the fungus to do a controlled de-orbit, they recently found out that Slime-Molds are intelligent so why not fungus? Just call the fungus and have it do whatever it needs to.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
Fungi can be remarkably resiliant -- mold spores can endure some pretty tough conditions.
It seems unlikely that surviving strains would be particularily dangerous, since there aren't really any selective pressures on the station that would favor a dangerous variety. The fact that they "eat" through metal and rubber is a terrestrial issue too... it's the oxidative agents they release.
I believe you're thinking of "A is for Andromeda"?
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
Just send me in with some tough-actin tinactin.
At least it's not a bannable offence.
Face it, people are stupid, and the internet is the place where they all meet.
Perhaps because the US isn't the only one funding the ISS? Reagan wanted to launch Freedom on our own, but with shrinking budgets, it wasn't practical. The ISS is the much smaller politically correct space station.
Unfortunately, as with many things designed and built by committee, it's over-cost, behind schedule, and the parts in orbit are already failing. You can find a list of the ISS participants here.
er there are way more then two terms
for instance planes do not have a mid-air collision what they actully do is have a "loss of seperation" or some times a "seperation of zero" according to air trafic controlers.
and acording to the US military thier missiles do NOT crash they "impact prematurely" presumably a miss is a "impact post-maturely" but I have never heard that one.
lets be brutaly honest all these are minor compared to "continue on" & "irrregardless"
Yes I can not spell...Wait....for a second there I almost cared.
I'm much more concerned that the MIR will crash somewhere deep in the Florida swamps and that the vile space-fungus will mutate a harmless mild-mannered astronaut into a bloodthirsty, sinster guy-in-a-monster-suit, who will then embark on a killing rampage spreading death, destruction, and space-fungus all throughout the swamp. Because that's what happened in Dark Universe, the 1993 epic sci-fi classic whose gripping plot and breathtaking special effects give even Plan 9 from Outer Space a run for it's money. A chilling view of things to come....
========
Stephen C. VanDahm
James Cameron (yeah, the Terminator/Titanic dude himself) is reportedly going to be staying onboard Mir for a while. Don't believe me? Look at this and see for yourself. Surely he can come up with 7-10M.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Big deal.. my shithouse walls are covered with that slime.
.. and nobody is crybabying about it, or talking about deorbiting it.
Let it go! That fucking junked-up trailer trash hellhole of a "space station" should never have been put in orbit in the first place.
sheesh...
jonkatz@slashdot.org
Simple solution, join Mir onto the ISS make sure you biologicaly quarantine it off, let it rip, grow things in it, lark about abit, have some fun, life would love it 'cos life loves space.
Nobody has noticed how profound it is, that life has gained a foothold, without our planning. I would have thought that it would be cause for celebration, not complaints and noises like ugh. Yeah life causes hassle, big deal. People seem to think that the only communication is words or music or pictures. Life talks to me its incredible diversity, yeah funky fungi too.
Baffles me why all the talk of ditching such a potentialy valuable resource, brew beer in it, can you imagine the premium on such a brew? Wrap it in clear plastic to keep it air tight, grow oxygenators. Why can't Mir be made part of the ISS? The fun part. Create a micro climate. What is the name of honorable mould?
Perhaps we could tinker with its genes and turn it into cheese. Or get really crafty and find something that likes the taste of this mould then build a food chain that ends with a duck.
Go mould GO
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
Let's take a look:
MIR
Andromedia Strain
Makes you wonder just bit... :)
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Segmentation Fault ( core dumped )
Isn't there a bunch of space junk stuck in orbit? Why doesn't that drop through, too? Are those items further out?
I'm not trying to be a troll... I just never did "get it" w/orbital physics. A first semester physics teacher said the downward pull, plus the forward motion, translated to it staying up there forever. Was that an ideal model, not including drag, etc? Or is MIR in a fixed orbit, while those things are actually spinning about the Earth?
Episode 17 of that NBC show...
The winner is enjoying his days on MIR, eating stale freeze-dried sardines and tang.
Suddenly a face appears in the port on the door.
The door opens...
A gigantic fat man in a space suit enters. He removes his mask. And with a fake smile and a weary attempt at emphasis, the man yells:
"Boom! Tough-Actin' Tinactin!" followed by "Hey, are those sardines I smell?"
Eventually someone opens an air lock just to end it all in peace.
Fade to black.
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Let me give you the lowdown
Unlike the other stupid pap :)
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DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
1) Falling back to earth should kill any bacteria, fungus, virus or whatever else is on there. Perhaps a few prions or other proteines and organic matter might survive, forget about living organisms
2) The fungus was terrestrial anyway. How do you think it got there? Read the article on the fungus, they said most of it was penecillium and other common fungi.
The only reason that they are so much of a problem on mir is the enclosed atmosphere. They build up fast. remember....these are things that originally adapted to grow, and produce spores...enough spores to spread on earth. Now take all those spores from each generation of fungus...and keep them in a tight enclosed space....add some moisture in the air...very little competition for resources.
Of course, as a bonus....I wonder what the average inside temp is on the station...if its between 90-98F...the fungus will have a feild day.
Scientists here on earth believe that fungi are mutating into new species faster than they can be found and catergorized. After so many years in space, I would imagine their fungus have already mutated quite alot - add the excessive radiation - and it should be quite interesting.
I, for one, hope that they kept samples.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Astronauts visiting Mir de-swallowed their space-lunch when they smelled the Mir fungus.
AFAIK, most of the drag is due to space near
Earth not being perfect vacuum. They call it
outer space, but our atmosphere still has
some presence. Small junk will see less drag
and will persist longer, although it also
depends on its shape and mass.
The dynamics is quite complicated, so if you are
far enough away, then you can run away from
Earth due to gravitational effects (IIRC that's
what's happening to Moon, sloowly).
They're not diverting money to that! The mafia is diverting it to their own pockets!
That's irresponsible and it pisses me off as a taxpayer to see money that went to the Russians for political reasons be wasted like that when the job would've been done on-time and on-budget if it had been picked up by a European or American aerospace company instead of being done as a Russian government operated project.
And US taxpayer money being spent on useless American projects that could have been done on-time and on-budget by corporations doesn't piss you off? Ever hear of pork barrell? This happens all the time.
Give me a few moments and then I'll come up with a good comeback!
They should use the last fuel in the thrusters to fly the mir to mars. This will go very slowly ofcourse. That's good, because the fungie will have time to slowly adapt to their coming habitat as the environtment on board will slowly change. And by the time humans will finally go to mars there will be a nice welcome of little martians that resemble Toad - that marioland guy.
"Enegia" -- the company that actually manages the MIR space station reported that they are NOT going to deorbit. Those with doubting minds and mad Russian skillz, check out http://www.gazeta.ru/lenta.shtml. Make sure you scroll down to 17:57 news.
It's probably a strain of Motajbwa (as featuring in the Dustin Hoffman movie, "Outbreak" and also in the Dustin Hoffman movie where he dresses up like a girl).
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
Why not build a large laser that can repeatedly hit Mir (or any orbiting body) with energy, to "push" it to a higher orbit (by thermal pressure). Or just blast it out of the sky? Where is all this Star Wars technology when we need it?
"It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward
Does that mean we all better go order large amounts of pillows from the internet? After all, if they can protect someone far out in Australia, then surely we can stop a giant flaming space station. :)
What... you mean that commercial WASN'T real? Darn, and I thought they wouldn't do that to us. Next you'll tell me that smoking and drinking really won't make me really cool and highly attractive...
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"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Not only did they buy the rights, they already ran some ads asking for applicants.
Check it out here
Of course, they played during the Olympic closing ceremonies, so not that means that only about 6 people saw them (including me), but still....
Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
Karma Police, arrest this man, he talks in maths
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Anyone want to start the betting on where it lands? If they don't have the money to go up and properly de-orbit the fungal wonder it's anyones guess where it will land!
UBU
Does NBC stand to make significantly more than 7 to 10 million (say 70 to 100 million) from the Destination Mir show? If not, then I doubt they'll invest. Bastards.
Is that fungi internal or external? How would they deal with it? Or is that the main mission the astronauts are training for?
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
"commie bastards screw US tv show over for millions"
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
A plane was de-flighted today, causing the de-functioning of over 100 passengers...
In news today, the Mir station was deorbited, landing on the headquarters of Slashdot(slashdot.org). When asked about the damage, Slashdot's CmdrTaco responded by saying that it was only a little hotter than normal. Moderators on Slashdot set a record with the number of (-1 flamebait) moderations.
If someone can convice NBC that by shotting someone twitt into space for a vacation on a rusty, moldy arcaic space station that reeks of russian sweat socks, then I'm sure they will foot a few million to keep it going...wait a second...is this really better than being on an island with 2 hot chicks, and old fart and a gay guy?
:)
Of course, this is probably better than watching re-runs of survivor (already!@$#). I'd love to see the winner fall out of space
oooo or hell! the winner gets to come back to earth *with* MIR!
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remove SPORK.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Again? Geez, that's like the fifth time this week...
öööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööö
How Jaded Are You?
Maybe they can drop Mir in the Outback and Australia will forget about SkyLab. =)
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
Sure, NBC has big bucks now, but when I'm a contestant on Destination Mir, the TV show,
and I come back and sue them for space-alien toe fungus disease, see how they laugh then!
(my company- provided insurance policy covers diseases I contract while traveling, but I wonder if they'd find a way out of that one!)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
--
Mission to Mir to kill fungus -- $25,000,000
Chemicals to kill fungus -- $100,000
Cost of services rendered to MirCorp for deorbiting Mir -- $250,000
Watching with insane joy as Mir falls from the sky and hits some unsuspecting person in the forehead, killing him instantly -- priceless.
For everything else, there's NASA.
the scott adams method didn't work for the dilbert tv show, what makes you think it'll work for where mir will land?
Isn't there a bunch of space junk stuck in orbit? Why doesn't that drop through, too? Are those items further out?
There's all kinds of stuff out there, and a lot of it does drop to earth. Probably 99% of it burns up in the atmosphere (AHHH...The Atmosphere...AHHHH). Of the remaining stuff, most of it probably finds it's way into one of the oceans that make up 70% of the earths surface.
The problem with Mir is that it's of sufficient size that it probably would not totally burn up in the atmosphere, and an uncontrolled "de-orbit" would be just that: throw a dart to find out where it lands. Irony might suggest NBC studios as a possible crash site, but I digress...
Maybe someone should patent the space fungus' process and when MIr releases it onto the planet the owner could sue anyone whose stuff was infected for violation their ip rights. DC, BT, and Amazon should scope this one up quick!
Somebody had better warn Cameron before he visits next summer. Don't you hate it when you plan a vacation months in advance, and then your hotel gets deorbited?
MSK
-Kriticism
-PARANOIA is fun. D20 is not fun. The Computer says so.
-The Computer
i think the AP said he would pay in the area of ten million.
guess even that much isn't enough to keep Mir in orbit...
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Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
So, maybe I just don't know what in the hell I'm talking about, but if MIR does crash into Earth at all, given the "Space Fungi" onboard, will there be testing done to see if it can/will survive on earth, and whether or not it's going to to damage to Earth's ecosystem or Metals/Plastics on Earth?
Mir is not geostationary; it is at ~400 km; there is quite a bit of drag at such a low altitude.
I can see the press release now: Uncontrolled atmosphere re-entry! Kills all known germs, dead!
Surely a bottle of bleach would be cheaper than a space station?
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
Man, what a good movie.
Since being devoured horribly by space fungus is one of my inherent fears, I guess I won't be participating in Destination Mir. Bummer. I was looking forward to winning that one...
We must respect evil, and we must make evil respect us.
You know, they have one of the unlaunched Mir space stations at Tommy Bartlett's Robot World in the Wisconsin Dells. I personally think that living in the Dells for such a long time would be more torture than living on Mir, tho. As a plus, this one has no funky fungus :)
"Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire" --Robert Frost
So why will not having cash in the bank tomorrow suddenly make it plunge into the atmosphere? Is someone going to unglug the extension cord to Earth? Are the space landlords going to evict them? Is galactic collections going to show up and reposses their oxy generation unit?
I vant vodka! Nyet Jack Daniels.
Maybe the military could use Mir for target practice.
They seem to have a problem with the small ones, and should try something bigger. To be on the safe side, they should make sure the ISS is on the opposite site of the planet, in a higher orbit.
Pegasus launched anti-satellite weapon anyone.
So, instead of getting there by rocket, they'll get there by submarine. Though perhaps less glorious than space, the environments are equally dangerous. The slightest error will get you killed instantly.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I mean, Mir crashing down onto Redmond, Washington, just has a strange sort of appeal to it, doesn't it?
Maybe we could hold a bake sale.
As soon as i read this article, my memory was instantly harkened back to the Yahoo! commercial in which a man living in the Australian outback buys cushions to "catch" a falling communication satellite. Now I don't know exactly how the Russians do it, but when i hear "deorbit", I think "burn up in the atmosphere before crashing into the earth." If that thing is landing anywhere even remotely near my house, I am taking every possible measure to ensure that I will have Mir for my own. Forget college, my money will get me something much better than education, a Russian space station. Have your degrees, I am content with my planet-orbiting habitation module. I almost hope this triggers some sort of international conflict, maybe other countries would start to send me their satellites out of pity or protest. The only forseeable downfall is that darned fungus. An additional scenario, also quite conceivable, involves me killing off the earth's population courtesy an intergalactic space fungus. Whether I start a space vehicle collection or kill the entire planet, all shall know my name. Regardless the consequences, Mir shall be mine, unless it is landing in some random other place like Burkina Faso, and whatever lucky shmoe has it land in his back yard will have my idea to thank for it. Free space stations for all.
I'm glad to hear that thing will finally come down. Maybe now the Russian government will stop diverting US funds meant for building components of the ISS to keeping that floating rustbucket in orbit. I have no problem with them keeping Mir up except when they continually delayed putting up their part of the ISS because they were launching support missions for Mir. That's irresponsible and it pisses me off as a taxpayer to see money that went to the Russians for political reasons be wasted like that when the job would've been done on-time and on-budget if it had been picked up by a European or American aerospace company instead of being done as a Russian government operated project.
Have they thought about auctioning MIR off on E-bay?
Hmm.. I stumbled upon this... perhaps it is linked?
Celebrities.ownsu.com
My little sad piece of the internet: www.mtndewd
The station MIR is in working condition, and that it may remain in orbit manned or unmanned.
please correct me if my russian is incorrect, I'm getting a little rusty.
They should host a "Survivor" series on Mir. Imagine the consequences of being "expelled" from the "Island".....
Burn Hollywood Burn
where Destination MIR really is. Your backyard.
Why don't we all make big donations to EFF to turn it into one of those data haven thingies privacy advocates are always talking about? We could offer everyone who makes a $2000+ donation a free satellite downlink for ultra-fast internet access as well. Oh... I remember! we'd rather spend the money on our own systems.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
and the article from Scientific American stating NASA's position against sex in space caused me to have this very ugly vision of a possible starting media for that culture.
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."
What if MiR de-orbits, and the fungus survives, and attackes metals and plastics, and grows and adapts and eventually becomes nympho-vuluptuous naked amazon women?!?!?!
.sigs??
LET MIR DE-ORBIT!!!!
-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
They already payed $40 million for the rights to the show, so, probably....
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I don't understand why people are so concerned about MIR. Come on, it's old, it's been damaged, it's falling apart, and with this fungus thing it's probably a very unhealthy environment, too. So why not just "de-orbit" it? What is so great about it? Okay, it was the first somewhat permanent thing in "space" (ahem, earth orbit, barely outside of the atmosphere), but that doesn't mean it has to stay there forever and be used. We aren't using ENIACs any more at huge costs, just because it was the first ...
There is the ISS now, which is much more modern, bigger, better equipped, and it's operated by more than just one nation. So I really can't see the reason for keeping this old thing up there, wasting money and posing a threat to everybody working there.
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
There are a few reasons why the Mir is so low in orbit. first it takes less energy to resupply a low orbit station, next the drag that causes the mir to slow down causes the space around it to be relatively junk-free (with earth's atmosphere as the vacuum cleaner for that) Mir orbits earth on a flight path that keeps it alternate between 54N and 54S (IIRC) between 310 and 400 km above ground (sea level). at this altitude Mir travels around earth several times a day. A ground plot looks a bit like a sine curve, and is slightly displaced on each turn. (sorry I am lacking a bit of vocabulary here) you can see for yourself at "Where is Mir?"
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.