Mir To Crash Into Pacific

b0z writes "According to an article on Yahoo! the Russians are planning to dump Mir into the ocean in February. According to the article, the $40 million that MirCorp has raised is not enough to save Mir. Also, it is noted that Mir has been in use much longer than the engineers that made it intended." Of course, I'll believe this when I "see" it - the saga of Mir continues.

Comments

Re:What about the radiation?

[dnnrly]

Um? Where did you get the idea that Mir was radioactive? To start with, there is no nuclear pile aboard. a) it's too heavy and inconvenient to put up their (not only the pile but all that shielding as well) and b) it wasn't strictly necessary since it's easier to work things so that they draw less power and stick a couple of photoelectric cells (albeit big ones) to side of the station!

Before you go on about it being irradiated in outer space, I'd just like to point out that cosmic radiation just isn't strong enough there and any solar winds are mostly deflected by the earths magnetosphere. Anyway, even if Mir gets a good dose of beta radiation (free electrons for the uninitiated), any charge that builds up will just be 'absorbed' by the atmosphere. You probably get more extra electrons form solar wind in a second than you would form Mir no matter how long it had stayed up! As for alpha particles I think their only dangerous if their fast moving.

Not as if any less radiation is put into the sea by you average Nuclear power station or sunken nuclear submarine in the baltic sea.

dnnrly