Mir Lives

hyperstation writes "An article at abcnews.com says that Mir will stay up, thanks to a $27 million donation (that's 750 megarubles) from Russia. Look's like they're not broke after all." *sigh* Someone wake me up when Mir finally falls to the planet.

Comments

Mir Is Boring

[Foogle]

Mir Is Boring. Long Live The Karma-Burn!

At least we don't have to worry about splashdown..

[d.valued]

Yet.

Mathematically, there's about a 3 in 10 chance a falling MIR station would hit land.

Then again, I'm happy. I'm trying out for Destination: MIR.

Talk about the potential for a real Geek In Space :)

Great.

[mindstrm]

Can that be the end of the stupid 'Mir is crashing' 'oh wait it's not after all!' stories? It's not intersting anymore.

If they run out of cash, it falls out of the sky. Period. Every time they run out, they say it's gonna fall. Every time someone gives them money, it stays in orbit longer.

That about sums it up.

Re:Great.

[wannabe]

Now it's official -

With the recent addition of /. being compared to Chicken-little, there are no more deragatory simliarities to be made.

Guess I'm leaving, last one out turn off the light lock the door.

Re:Great.

[UnspeakablyLisa]

I would call it more of a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" story on the part of the Russians. When they really -are- going to drop Mir, no one will believe them.

Mir and it's usefulness and Russia

[sips]

Why dosn't somebody just replace Mir. For goodness sake it's like someone remodeling a model T ever few years and calling it a good car.

Also isn't Russia the same country that can't even pay it's citizens and massive food shortages and lack of adequate housing? What is their possible motivation?

Re:Mir and it's usefulness and Russia

[Anne Marie]

First, the Russian space program is heavily subsidized by international efforts, both through direct grants and through IMF credits, so the burden doesn't fall so greatly on the Russian government itself. Besides, the space program is an important part of international diplomacy and is necessary for that reason alone.

Second, Russia isn't doing nearly as badly right now, thanks to the threefold increase/barrel in the price of oil. They have incredible problems with infrastructure (especially with factories falling apart), but that's an argument in favor of continuing the program, not shutting it down.

Third, fundamental domestic problems have never stopped any other country from pursuing these high-profile feats of national pride (and maintaining MIR is a much different and cheaper proposition than building nuclear weapons like Pakistan and other countries are doing). Why should it stop Russia now?

Re:Mir and it's usefulness and Russia

[sips]

Besides, the space program is an important part of international diplomacy and is necessary for that reason alone.


How does it effect the balance of power to have an operational space station? Seems slighly hollow.

Re:Mir and it's usefulness and Russia

[Poligraf]

Also, don't forget commercial launches of the other countries' and private satellites by proven and relatively cheap rockets.

Re:Mir and it's usefulness and Russia

[Anne Marie]

It doesn't "affect" any balance of power, but it's useful nonetheless as a place for common ground and common endeavors. Look at it this way: it's useful for diplomatic relations between you and your playmates if you own and operate a videogame machine (or a terminal for reading slashdot, for that matter). It doesn't give you an extra card to play in times of war, but it does give you something you and your allies can play with in times of peace and build on your relationships.

Mir = Televangelist?

[Kid Zero]

Why does this remind me of Oral Roberts? "Donate $4 Million or God will call me home!" is that any better than "Mir Crashes into the Pacific unless we get more money!"

Someone gave Roberts his money, and so did Mir. Personally, it seems everyone is waiting for to see if God really will call Mir home.


-----------------------------
1,2,3,4 Moderation has to Go!

Re:Mir = Televangelist?

[Kiss the Blade]

I'd disagree with this. You see, Mir is beneficial to the Russian people - it improves moralle.

As I understand it, lots of people in Russia are rather wistful for the old communist days, when everyone feared Russia and it was a global power. They are depressed and unconvinced by the virtues of capitalism.Therefore, anything that can help them hold their heads up high is good for Russia. Hell, Mir might even contribute to keeping the communists at bay just now - when your army hasn't been payed for 6 months and your fighting a pointless demoralising war (Chechnia) you've always got to be worried about revolution. So, for this reason, Mir may actually serve a useful purpose, in that it may help Joseph Bloggsov stay proud of 'Mother Russia'.Never underestimate the power of symbols.

Theres a fungus among us.

[evilphish]

Wasn't the Mir, space station infested with a mold, or fungus. it seems to me that it would be cheaper for russia to drop mir, and invest some of there money into the international space station. http://www.globe.com/dailyglobe2/275/nation/Astron auts_vs_fungus+.shtml If that article is correct, I wouldn't want to send my citizens up there, its just way to dangerouse, risking there lives in a rusty space pinto.

Re:Theres a fungus among us.

[wwphx]

Actually I think he's WILLiam shatNER.

--

Rename it:

[manichawk]

At this rate, it should be renamed to:

"The Amazing Space Yo-Yo!"...

Its up, its down...

[FortKnox]

Its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down, its up, its down...

Someone needs to make up their mind. This is a government project! It shouldn't hit the news until everything is final. This is crazy!
Seriously, they need to bring it down. Its outlived its time, and the ISS will take its place. Out with the old, in with the new. She had her time, and now its over.


-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's .sigs??

Get it away!

[szero]

I say we should pop some boosters on that sucker and launch it into deep space.

Re:Get it away!

[photozz]

Well, as long as we are going to do that, could we pack away a few of the "less desireable" *coughtacobellchiuauacough* elements on board?

This sucks

[photozz]

Would someone please shot down that aging pile of floating crap. All we need is for another major incident to happen, thus giving the anti-space exploration lobby more ammo. NASA must be having a fit.

Re:This sucks

[driftingwalrus]

There's a lot of value to keeping Mir running at this stage.

The more disasters encountered on Mir the more experience you have dealing with them. Mir's had fires, explosions, air leaks, crashes, failures galore. What that means is that now they know how to deal with those disasters in a real world situation.

Because of Mir the Russians have been able to gain a great of expertise on dealing with space-borne disasters. Who's to say that any one of the disasters Mir has encountered couldn't happen on the ISS? Every single one could very easily happen. The people who designed Mir should be extremely proud of themselves, they've managed to build a space station that has survived more than twice is expected lifetime and it still supporting life.

How can Russia donate money to keep up the Mir?

[eeks]

Dont they RUN the Mir? Isn't that a little like me donating myself money so I can eat lunch?

oh boy...

[jbridge21]

Ai thinked thit Ai had kizzed Mir a sveet goodbye fur thee last taime! Bit alas, Ai shall hav teu go bak ind feex it once moore....
-----

It's becoming quite the soap opera

[Anne Marie]

"As the world turns" comes to mind. (Funny if you know what "Mir" means in Russian....)

Wrong, Russia is still broke.

[AFCArchvile]

"Look's like they're not broke after all."

Not quite. Russia's military only gets the equivalent of $3 billion in funding, whereas the U.S. military gets over $600 billion. This bailout for the Mir is only worth about three fighter planes; pretty stingy by our government's standards.

Re:Wrong, Russia is still broke.

[phantomlord]

whereas the U.S. military gets over $600 billion

The military budget was $280 billion for 2000 and $300 billion for 2001.

Keep it around

[Alcoholist]

Maybe they should attach it to the international space station and keep it around as a kind of historical site. Perhaps as a tourist attraction?

Maybe they should just turf it.

Re:Keep it around

[radja]

errrr.. mir will already be a tourist attraction, exploited by Amsterdam-based MirCorp (IIRC). MirCorp will rent it from russian government, brining in some extra cash (more than those few million just spent on keeping it in the air.

//rdj

Why not?

[ScratchDot]

It might be worth keeping up there just to study that freaky fungus. I personally am not buying a ticket to MIR until they have that whole space organism thing figured out.

why?

[vectus]

I don't see why they saved MIR, call me a troll, but i personally think that that money could have done more help to the International Space Station, albeit, it is only $27 million dollars, but that could at least help pay for some of it.

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[Foogle]

Uh... just about everyone who's gone into space has been a 'geek' of some sort. Particularly on the earliest space missions.

oh please

[gnudutch]

$27M. What is that worth, about five orbits? Please. That money would have been better spent on Russia's obligation to the ISS.

Mir will stay up... until February...

[Abcd1234]

For those of you who *read* the article, this is redundant, but it should probably be mentioned (for those folks who didn't) that the guy who wrote the original article submission was somewhat misleading in that the funding provided will keep Mir up until February, after which it's fate is undetermined. Likely, without additional outside funds, it will be brought down. But, the point is, according to the article, this influx of cash was necessary, irrespective of whether or not it's going to get "scuttled".

mir cashing?

[Sakke]

now could we collect enough money from slashdot collective, buy the thing and then crash it? da?

Run, Human!

[Bitter Cup O Joe]

Sorry, the headline just made me think of Sinistar.

Russia has no money, but many assets

[Vanbo]

I am sure Russia has no money but then they have many assets. Lets just hope that $27 million wasn't raised in a sale of some nukes to Bin Laden or the likes... VANBO

Re:Russia has no money, but many assets

[H*rus]

Lets hope it is. That would at least even the odds in the middle east.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Is there a point to keeping Mir alive?

[Bearpaw]

Aside from the morale/PR value for Russia, is there any point to keeping Mir alive? Given how old and patched it is, and the damage from fires and collisions, is it really still functional enough to be useful? Or should it be given a proud death, briefly lighting the heavens over Siberia?

(I ain't saying, I'm asking.)

Re:Is there a point to keeping Mir alive?

[Anne Marie]

With something as non-trivial as putting a space station into orbit, it's almost always cheaper to keep the existing one running than to burn it and put up a whole new one. Especially today: look at the International Space Station, a $60 billion project.

Sure, parts are only a small part of the total cost, but the Russian space program (while on hard times of late) is still doing well with existing technology and at quite reasonable prices. A manned soyuz is about $3.5 million, +$0.2million for propellant, +$5million for mission control/year, +$0.6 for launch is well under $10million. Add on the cost of parts/repair, and it's still a steal.

Re:Is there a point to keeping Mir alive?

[henley]

Quite apart from any of the justifications you'll hear (of which, let's be honest, politics & prestige are the only 2 that count), from a pushing-the-bounds-of-human-knowledge viewpoint the single best reason to keep Mir up there is that, yes indeed it's absolutely vital we understand what goes wrong on long-duration space facilities and how we deal with it.

Think of all that was learned in Mir's fire, and the crash. Ignore the *causes* of those disasters for a moment, and think of what was learnt:

• Fire-fighting in zero gravity is both easier and more difficult than on the earth. Easier, because if you shut down the air circulation there's no reason for the fire to spread. More difficult because since the fire's consumed the local oxygen it's tough to get close, the smoke won't disperse on it's own, the heat gets retained and you can re-ignite the fire etc etc etc...
• Hull-breaches do not necessarily require instant evacuation. On the other hand, they *will* require evacuation if the offending sections can't be identified and closed off quickly... (damn I really REALLY hope ISS learns this lesson and we don't see cables+wires+ducts getting strung up through bulkheads there when inbuilt connections fail....).
• The Mark 1, mod 0 eyeball coupled with Wetware v1.0 is *not* sufficient to handle teleoperated dockings with limited training and even more limited information.

Now think about what's been learnt about maintenance, repair techniques, re-supply, logistics, human psychology in crisis situations... The damn thing is an extremely valuable resource and there's *no way* it should be allowed to re-enter. It would even be worthwhile abandoning-in-place and *attempting* to revisit in 10 years time - even if the attempt fails (I'm thinking of the troubles re-visiting the abandoned Salut 7 here), you'd learn a lot about what's needed just in making the attempt.

Re:Is there a point to keeping Mir alive?

[Mathieu Lu]

It think that Mir is a very sexy hack. Sure, it might have become a kludge, but Russians have a very cool way of making things work.

Mir makes me think of ye old Commodore 64. People today are stilled obcessed to make theses computers work and do very cool things.

Then again, I'm sure that Russians and engineers are not going to agree with me (I'm not an engineer), but from my point of view (CS geek), I like to look at the sky and think of "one giant a-la-C64 hack orbitting the Earth".

Re:Is there a point to keeping Mir alive?

[Bearpaw]

Quite apart from any of the justifications you'll hear (of which, let's be honest, politics & prestige are the only 2 that count), from a pushing-the-bounds-of-human-knowledge viewpoint the single best reason to keep Mir up there is that, yes indeed it's absolutely vital we understand what goes wrong on long-duration space facilities and how we deal with it.

I understand what you're saying, but it seems to me that you describe what we have learned from Mir. What I'm wondering is whether it's really worth it to keep it up there. IANARS (I Am Not A Rocket Scientist), but I don't think it really can be "abandoned-in-place" without ongoing maintenance funding, of the sort that keeps getting scraped up at the last minute.

Re:Is there a point to keeping Mir alive?

[henley]

Well, I didn't explicitly state it but it was implicit in what I said. By keeping Mir up there we'll learn more of the same. Why is this a good thing? Well, right now we don't know what we don't know about maintaining space habitats so all data is good data that helps puts bounds on the limits of our ignorance.

And the money thing, well I hinted that abandoning-in-place CAN be done (I think Mir's orbit is in the 10yr-to-decay range but don't quote me) AND that this is preferable to destroying by burn up. This would leave the option of a revival open later with significantly low probability of success but high probability of science return ("we failed because xxx needing yyy consideration in the future").

Something doesn't add up here....

[Sheeple Police]

"US Pledges more money to Russia for ISS" "World Bank releives Russia of debt to help fund ISS" "Russian citizens mugged to give more money to ISS" Now all of a sudden we have, "Russia pledges 750 million ruples to space station because 'It's been such a good space station this week, so it gets an advance on its allowance'" Is it just me or does it seem like Russia is becoming that Hamburger dude from Popeye? "I'll gladly pay you back (whenever) if you loan me money today"

Re:Something doesn't add up here....

[ackthpt]

I suspect J. Wellington Wimpy is running the books in Russia.

"I shall gladly pay you Tuesday for a MirBurger to-day."


--

Mir Will Fall It's Just A Question Of When

[Spit_Fire1]

Mir is too old to keep in use it's systems crash more than Windows 95 I mean really leave it alone and let it die.

Space tether

[maddogsparky]

Maybe they'll finally get that space tether working and we won't see this headline every-other week (alternating of course with "Mir to be de-orbited). Until then, I guess we get to keep watching investors see their investments go up in the exhaust plumes of fuel-laden supply drones.

What about Mars?

[scott1853]

How bout we launch it out towards Mars. The NASA guys can plan the flight path, they're pretty good when it comes to at least hitting the planet. All the fungus can then populate Mars and start an ecosystem out there so when humans actually get out there there'll be plenty of life.

Honestly though, I don't like the idea of space fungus crashing into the ocean. You think oil spills are bad, how about bacteria that didn't even originate on this planet. Which sounds more harmful to the environment?

Re:What about Mars?

[alcohollins]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm no scientist, but I've gotta think that any lifeform that can exist the radiation of space must be pretty resilient. If it's some virulent strain of bacteria out there, and it lands in our oceans.... We might not be eating sea food for a while.

This whole thing reminds me of the Andromeda Strain...

Re:How can Russia donate money to keep up the Mir?

[jaga~]

More like you delegating the necessary amount of blood to your hand so that it is able to lift the sandwich to your mouth.

You mean a diving bell

[sips]

You would have to look deeper than waders could provide.

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[Sheeple Police]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't your math imply that it is *uncontorolled* - in an uncontrolled entry, where all other factors were equal, then yes, it's a 3/10 chance (Earth = 30% land), but sadly for the Australians (*cough*Skylab*cough*), it isn't uncontrolled. So that makes the odds *much* less

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[girish]

It might actually break up in the atmosphere, and cause little or no destruction on land/water.

Don't know why I'm asking

[meadowsp]

What does it mean then?

Re:Don't know why I'm asking

[macpeep]

Mir means peace.

Re:Don't know why I'm asking

[Anne Marie]

"Mir" means both "world" and "peace". This is the point in the conversation where I always point out that Lev Tolstoy's "War and Peace" should have been translated better as "War and the World".

the remains of it...

[cookieman]

For russians MIR is a symbol of their own achievments and power. Too bad is too old.

Die in peace (or is it pieces? ;))

This isn't new...

[FortKnox]

In this past yahoo article described in the slashdot article about the Mir being deorbitted, the russian government was supplying the spacestation fuel to bring it into higher orbit so that it can control its deorbit and put it in the ocean. They are going to bring it down at the end of february. And this article states that it will stay up until at least february. So you are repeating yourself...


-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's .sigs??

Re:This isn't new...

[FortKnox]

Klebanov was quoted as saying Russia would send space cargo craft Progress to Mir, with fuel needed to safely down the station in a designated location in the Pacific Ocean.

This comes from a CNN.com article that the yahoo article (mentioned above) came from.
And here/A&g t; is the slashdot article mentioned above.


-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's .sigs??

Typical chick remark

[Hairy_Potter]

quite the soap opera

Hey Taco, did you ever consider renaming this to soapdot.org, maybe get a tie in with all the soaps, add some sections on Titans and Passions.

Maybe we can broaden the demographics here, and get some more chicks posting.

Ghod knows I have enough chicks in my life, but I feel for the less fortunate geeks that are making do with Rosie their palm pilot.

Re:Typical chick remark

[Vuarnet]

God knows I have enough chicks in my life, but I feel for the less fortunate geeks that are making do with Rosie their palm pilot.
Could be worse. They could be making out with Rosie their palm pilot.

Why hasn't Mir gone to the pr0n industry?

[Sheeple Police]

I'm sure there would be scads of pr0n producers (Vivid Video being the one that comes to mine) that would leap at the chance to produce a zero-g sex movie... just a though for our pr0n lovin friends

Re:Why hasn't Mir gone to the pr0n industry?

[Mzilikazi]

I dunno... Between space sickness and the typical kinetic energy involved in these sorts of things, your typical stars/starlets would probably have a rough time. Except for the only former NASA Shuttle Engineer currently working in pr0n, Scott Styles.

No, this is not a joke.

http://www.scottstyles.com/bio.htm

Re:Why hasn't Mir gone to the pr0n industry?

[Vuarnet]

That reminds me of a flick I saw once, "Attack from the pussysuckers from Mars". Stupid movie. So-and-so scenes. Incredibly Ed Wood-esque sets, made out of christmas bulbs and an old washer.

Peppered with trully brilliant gems of wisdom such as, "there are still several light-years to go before we reach Earth (from Mars!). Let's have sex".

All I can say is that it's the funniest porno movie I've ever seen.

Re:Why hasn't Mir gone to the pr0n industry?

[bukkake]

i meant simulated as in that they didn't actually shoot pr0n stars into space... p.s. i just bought if for the excellent voice dubs

Re:Why hasn't Mir gone to the pr0n industry?

[bukkake]

p.p.s. thx for the modding down FAGOT (not you..the other guy)

i'm pretty sure

[Lord Omlette]

the bacteria is earth based that just happened to contaminate the station. otherwise we'd have nuked the station a while ago...
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057

Re:i'm pretty sure

[scott1853]

Didn't the report state that fungus was also on the outside of the ship?

and when someone transitions

[Lord Omlette]

from iss to mir and back again, whoops, iss is now contaminated with space (earth) fungi that want to eat it from the inside out.

let's not...
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057

The Russian Mafia is not broke...

[Byteme]

Anyone know if that donation came by way of the Bank of New York?

It _lives_?

[sporty]

Wow, didn't know whatever is growing on that thing gave it life. Put some dead bodies in there and you can have a regular zombie jamborie!

---

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[Kiss the Blade]

just about everyone who's gone into space has been a 'geek' of some sort.

Thats funny, I always had the impression that they were all 'jocks' - eg ex-air force, gung-ho all-American heroes. Am I completely wrong? Very probably.

Ugh. Prepare the ICBMs.

[AFCArchvile]

Once Mir is effectively replaced by the ISS, let's just blow it out of the sky. That fungus-ridden space fossil is a biohazard and has no reason whatsoever in returning to our atmosphere. Either that or shoot it into the center of the sun. (Don't *bleep* with Wendy Testaburger!)

It's up again?

[anotherone]

How much money have they spent trying to keep this old peice o' crap up, and how much more would they have to spend to replace the thing? Is fixing it up very economical?
-------

Actually nothing has changed...

[Phoenix]

It's a little more detailed than the last "Mir is crashing" story, but it says the same thing so far. The last post said that MIR was scheduled for re-entry in late February. This post says that they have the funding to keep it up till February, after that the fate is undecided. So far it sounds like two news sources having two angles on the same story. Typical of the news media in this country...left hand hasn't a clue what the right is doing. My opinion, the damn thing is falling apart, it suffered major damage to its systems in the fire, mold is eating it from the inside out, it's systems are outdated, it's been up there far longer than it's designers ever planned...Let the poor bastard die and lets throw that 27 mil into some optional extras in the ISS. Needs a entertainment system up there...DVD, Surround System, 50" TV, network to play Quake on...that sort of thing to keep the astronauts happy. Phoenix Oh...and a mini fridge filled with nothing but Guiness.

Re:Actually nothing has changed...

[barabbi]

Scarily enough, i totally agree. I've had friends of mine tell me that this comment really made sense, and congratulating me. My nick name is phoenix for most things on the net, though not on slashdot. It's something i would say, just an odd thing to happen.

it's been up longer than it was supposed to, it's a money sink, and i think adding streaming video from outside the ISS is a better use of 27 mil. imnsho.

and definately guinness.... yummy.

Re:Actually nothing has changed...

[Phoenix]

Well, they say that great minds think a like...wonder what's my excuse then

dock it..

[gismo_c]

well, why not docking the MIR on ISS :)

at the moment it looks like they will let it again 10 Years in space :)

*bang*

Re:dock it..

[Capt. Beyond]

That would not be a good idea. MIR is infested with a green fungus, probably planted, or at least brought up by some space agency whos lift off pads are in a humid, moist, swampy type place. If they docked MIR to zarya, they would end up passing that fungus on to it.

Mir Logic

[citmanual]

#!/usr/bin/perl

while (){
live;
announce_death;
}
die "Screaming heap";

Re:Mir Logic

[citmanual]

doh. didn't like the spaceship operator.
while (<investor>) {
should have been the line.

Mir is important, even if it's worse off than an A

[Apuleius]

You guys remember the Mir-is-filling-up-with-fungus story?

Wouldn't it have sucked for the first Mars mission people to find this out, oh, halfway across?

NASA's philosophy is to be as certain as possible that everything must be perfectly planned before the first countdown. Baikonur's philosophy is "we'll jump off that bridge when we get to it." Guess what: the Mars mission will need a mix of both philosophies.

Every new Mir disaster is another data point, another caveat, for the Mars mission. Let's
give some praise for the Russians for putting up with these disasters (and the American haughtiness they inevitably provoke). We need it.

(Next Mir story: Mir held hostage by mutant fungus. Neo-organism demands net connection and account on /.)

ya ya ya

[benshutman]

if i had a dollar for every time i read a "mir coming down" or "mir staying up" article id treat my self to a nice dinner.


NEWS: cloning, genome, privacy, surveillance, and more!

what costs money?

[Lxy]

There's a piece of floating space crap that's infested with some kind of extra-terrestrial fungus. Why do they need money to keep it running? Is it using a long extension cord to reach the earth and if they unplug it will it come plunging down? It's a hunk of worthless crap now. Must be a government project.

"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson

Bummer!

[ackthpt]

Now I'll have to cancel my pre-sale of flaming Mir wreckage on eBay.


--

What about the body?

[small_dick]

Isn't there still a body on that thing?

I thought some rich dude, who was funding Carl Sagan's sisters' SETI research, died up there or something.

The Russian Space agency could start a TV show.

[AFCArchvile]

This Old Mir

The first episode would be on how to repair solar panels and navigate a Progress freighter into the Mir docking port.

Next week: Scrubbing that furry space fungus off of the control panels!

Mir... the first I.S.S. fixer-up-er?

[powerlord]

Is there any value to be had from MIR in relation to the new (and now in theoretically 'on-line') International Space Station?

Usually the biggest hurdle in space exploration is simply getting out of the gravity well of Earth. MIR is already up there. Isn't there a way that it could be used to some benifit for ISS (even if it is only stripped for spare parts)? (or as a last line of evacuation if all else fails?)

Their boobs would look funny, or explode

[Hairy_Potter]

I'm sure there would be scads of pr0n producers (Vivid Video being the one that comes to mine) that would leap at the chance to produce a zero-g sex movie... just a though for our pr0n lovin friends

Most space stations run at an atmospheric pressure at about half sea level, though the oxygen partial pressure is of course normal.

So, if you can imagine what would happen to a highly pressurized bag of silicone or saline at lower pressures, pop!

Though I'm not very familiar with much porn (though I did really like Net Dreams, did anyone see that? It even had a plot, a cheesy midget and a fistfight, it rooled), does Vivid use normal breasted women or the pneumatic ones?

Getting metaphysical about Mir....

[8127972]

If a space station drops into the ocean when nobody's around, does it make a sound?

Doesn't sound like a very good investment...

[chris_martin]

11/1/00 1/31/01 92 Days
$293,478.26 Per Day
$12,228.26 Per Hour
$203.80 Per Minute
$3.40 Per Second

Russian Bluff?

[Thr34d]

This makes me wonder if all along the Russians did have the money to keep it up but didn't reveal it so that someone else (US) would come along and give them the money.

Cheapskates!

Sigh

[Alternity]

How much do you think I would have to pay the Russian Gov. just to make sure they throw MIR into the ocea and never ever talk about it again?


"When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun...

The MIR Telethon

[ch-chuck]

Carol: ... so we need everyone's support to keep this research station up in orbit, we need you to call in and pledge your support, 10, 50, 100 million rubles, whatever level you feel comfortable with, and, ok, for the next 10 callers, yes, the next ten callers will receive a FREE "Great MIR Accomplishments" CD, so pick up the phone and, oh yes, here's Ed with some news...

Ed: That's right Carol, this just in the Russian Government has pledged 750 - that's right 750 million Rubles to help keep MIR in orbit...

Carol: Wow!

Ed: Yes, but this will only help keep it going until February folks, so we can't stop now, our goal is 3 Billion Rubles....

Carol: Thanks Ed, a big show of thanks for the Russian Government for that tremendous pledge, wow [applause] now , ok, we challenge anybody out there, if you can match the Russian pledge we'll send you not only the CD BUT also this coffee table book "MIR Photography" so pick up that phone now, call 1-800-SAVE-MIR and make that pledge, is easy to do, operators are - yes, we have operators just waiting for your call, so do it now, we've only got another week and....

Re:The MIR Telethon

[Vegeta99]

I called to donate, and it says "The Fax Number You Have Dialed Is Not in Service!" Stupid Russians... -Rob

Re:The MIR Telethon

[stubob]

Oh, and we've got a fax coming through:

"Dear MIR,
Upon hearing we would be the location of your deorbiting, we took up a collection and came up with $27 million to not fall on us. We hope this donation will convince you to dispose of yourself and your radioactive mutant space monkey fungus somewhere else and not on top of our wildlife.
Thank you.

Sincerely, Hawaii, Oceana, The Galapagos Islands, Austrailia, Flipper and Gilligan."

MIR: euthanasia?

[JodyKhan]

How come everyone is out to kill poor Mir?

It is an amazing achievment keeping a space station around for so long. It has taught cosmonaut's alot about living in space and it has contributed greatly to research science.

I say keep it going as long as possible. Just because it's not new doesn't mean it can't contribute. I mean it's already built and running. Nothing to shoot up into space just repair it and keep going, Maybe build onto it.

Why not scrape that overpriced ISS and spend the money on expanding and improving Mir?

Could it be American arogance? Just because the US did not build it does not mean it's not worthwhile.

While boring it is still neat

[Mondrames]

I have always been impressed with the fact that man has been able to engineer a space station that is useful after almost double its life expectancy, even if it is smelly, dirty, and has the leg room of a chevette.

Mir will eventually fall when. . .

[kfg]

The Russians run out of Duct tape and Lysol dysinfectant.

Improving Aim

[cybermage]

There just keeping it up there until they can drop it on something meaningful. Splashing down into the ocean has been done to death.

--

....until feburary

[Jose]

Russia pledged 750 million rubles ($27 million) on Thursday to launch two supply craft to keep its aging Mir space station flying until February, Itar-Tass reported, but its fate beyond that remained unclear.

The first line if the article.

Wasn't this the plan last week when you posted a very similar article?
Mir will crash and burn soon.

A message from the fungus above

[compwiz3688]

People of Earth:
No human had donated money to keep our space craft up here. We have deliberately hacked one of your servers and emailed a message to the Russian government that we are sending money to them. We needed some extra time so that we can complete the boosters we have been building. By the time you are reading this, we should pass by Mars. It has been a memorable 10 years with you. Thank you for your space craft.

Kronos
Leader of the Space Fungus race
------------------------------------

Note before you reply: I can't remember if it was 10 years anymore... it's been waaaaay to long.
---

article title

[British]

Reminds me of "Friday the 13th: Jason Lives", and I think in one of the many sequels, Jason cuts up a bunch of people on a space station.

I see a sequel of a sequel here.

Re:house?

[talesout]

I don't know why that got moderated down. He has a point you know.

After all, the guy found it interesting enough to post it, yet he acts like he's completely bored with it. Um, hello, tap*tap*tap, is this thing on.

Sigh

[Auckerman]

You are a nation that is essentially going bankrupt and have an old Space Station that mostly, sort of works with lots of fungii, what do you do?

A) Let it die and spend the money on food

b) Bring it down safely so someone in Singapore doesn't have it fall on his house.

c) Spend the money to prevent your aging nuclear arsenel from blowing up in your face.

d) Spend enough money to buy each citizen a loaf of bread on keeping it alive.

Btzzz, wrong. The answer is D.

Nationality can make some nations that can't afford to feed it's own citizens do some really stupid things.

Space Fungus

[Greyfox]

*sigh* Someone wake me up when Mir finally falls to the planet.

Wow! It sounds like you really want a close encounter with the space fungus. Don't be depressed! It'll fall back to earth eventually!

ISS+Mir

[MouseR]

Couldn't they permanently dock Mir onto ISS?

This would give Mir it's supply link and orbital stability, and instantly give ISS a larger work area and array of instruments.

Admitedly, Mir's instruments are old and it's living quarters not exactly to Hilton standards. it also has it's fongus problems and other issues. but being grafted onto ISS could make Mir an adequate backup solution for both instrumental issues and life support.

Karma karma karma karma karmeleon: it comes and goes, it comes and goes.

Re:ISS+Mir

[Anonymous Coward]

But, if (another) fire broke out on Mir or Mir became depressurized (again) then that would pretty well suck for the rest of the bright, shiny ISS. Besides, I expect a prohibitive amount of orbital maneouvering would be required to get the two ships into docking position.

Besides, Mir is the LAST thing I would want for my life support back-up system.

Nice troll, though. Keep up the good work.

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[psergiu]

Yep you're wrong - they were all 'jocks' - eg ex-air force, gung-ho all- Russian heroes... :)

--

Govt. to private corporation

[Peter Millerchip]

AFAIK, Mir is now "privately" run by the RSC Energia corporation, which used to be the Soviet space agency.

So if the Russian government has given RSC Energia a load of cash, the situation is analogous to Congress allocating funds to NASA for the International Space Station. Or, to use your own analogy, it's like your mom allocating lunch money to you :)

hahah

[TheCuban]

thats funny

Russian Roulette..

[Molt]

Okay...

Let's strap a GPS system to this thing's orbital equivilent of a 'Black box', all take bets on the longitude and latitude of it's crash site, and bring it back home to Mother Earth. Closest guess gets to push the button on the ISS when it's time comes.

Me, my bets are on 38.85 77.04. I don't know why, I just like those numbers.

Of course they need to keep it flying...

[sconeu]

How else will NBC get to broadcast "Destination Mir"?

Maybe RSC Energia should hit up NBC for some buck$!

When Corruption Works

[Baldrson]

Senior government ministers have said they favor bringing the 14-year-old station out of orbit and letting it crash in the ocean, but space officials have avoided taking a public stand on the fate of what was once the pride of Soviet science.

Sardonica enabled: Isn't it just terrible the way IMF, World Bank and internal Russian money slated for Russian needs ends up in the Gibralter bank accounts of the oligarchs, as, of course, it should -- but when the time comes for the space bureaucracy to be given a little money so they can go through the charade of an international space station with NASA, they don't just turn the money they've been given over to NASA the way they should -- they keep that awful, dirty, creaky, smelly, garbage-heap of a "space station" MIR alive and victimize the one true and only international space station?

Sardonica disabled: NASA, even more than most other bureaucracies, abhors competition. The last thing NASA can tolerate is a major political embarrassment. The worst political embarrassment imaginable is some other, more poorly-funded organization obviously outperforming NASA. Another Shuttle disaster is more politically tolerable than that because NASA can always say, "You just didn't give us enough money so we were forced to cut corners." the way they can do with anything just but only to the extent that it is unique, no matter how wasteful or stupid it is.

So, the uniqueness of the space station is absolutely essential to NASA's politics. Any alternate space station means NASA will continually have to be thinking about what the competition might be doing that could prove embarrassing.

NASA is the true heir of Soviet central planning.

The fungus among us...

[anactofgod]

Remember the Slashdot posting on the Boston Globe article about how Mir is being overrun by Teenage Mutant Ninja Fungi?

Consider that if Mir was to be deorbited, it would not burn up completely (remember Skylab?). Consider also that fungi are remarkably resiliant, and could potentially survive the stresses and heat inside a reentering spacecraft. Consider, too that Mir, if deorbited, will probably have a trajectory that sets it squarely into some ocean, making it impossible for human to control and monitor the wreckage and its tiny passengers.

I wonder if the powers that be have even thought to consider the potential ramifications of introducing these new strains into the Earth's ecosystem, unmonitored and unchecked.

Remember the movie "The Blob"? *Grynn*

...anactofgod...

Cost to keep it alive

[Auckerman]

$27 Million for 92 days

$293,478.26 Per Day

$12,228.26 Per Hour

$203.80 Per Minute

$3.40 Per Second

US Military = $600B...so what?

[xonix7]

Doesn't matter how much funding they throw into the military. That's pretty much been proven. Who cares if they have ultra high tech missiles with built in laser scopes and all that, they don't work - they end up hitting the wrnog bloody targets.

And as for the advanced US military aircraft....whatever, it would be nice if they could actually fly the vehicles without bashing into eachother. Americans. Bah. Even with .5% of the military funding Russia would kick their arses.

What the hell I thought...

[TheCuban]

I thought that Russians couldn't afford their own god damn module on the international space station. Where did they get 27 mil to spend on that POS mir?

again?

[finally]

Mir is staying up.
Mir is coming down.
You do the hokey pokey...

Mir International Historic Site

[Alien54]

If this keeps up, I can imagine that in a hundred years or so, someone is going to urge that we preserve Mir as a historic site for the tourists. We'll just have to tow it up a little higher.

This also would be a good platform for studying the deterioration of materials in space, (never mind the fungi on board).

WHY???

[11390036]

Why is so much money being poured into such a money hole??

MIR has its large host of problems, and this $27 million could have been better invested in other areas of space development, say as a part of the international space station?

Seriously, MIR is not only a money trap, its a health hazard!

Nuked?

[stubob]

I hope you're using "nuked" in a euphamistical manner. Otherwise, that's a REALLY bad idea, EMP-wise and all. Plus now we get radioactive fungus raining down on us. Hey, as Dave Barry says, "Radioactive Fungus" is a good name for a band.

Hmm, nuke + space + Pierce Brosnan + Joe Don Baker (Mitchell!) = Goldeneye.

Re:Nuked?

[Lord Omlette]

when I say nuke I mean plant a Thermonuclear device on the station, kick it out of orbit, let er rip.

if the fungi can survive a nuke and hit a ride on debris and survive re-entry, then fine, they deserve to wipe us out.
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057

Re:Nuked?

[scott1853]

Wouldn't it be better to set off the nuke between us and the station (after it's far enough away) just to make sure that everything is propelled away from Earth.

Re:Nuked?

[Lord Omlette]

that's an interesting one... shaped nuclear charge? but if you remember the discussion on nukes for civil engineering, the biggest problem with nukes is that we cannot anticipate their effects accurately enough. so let's use two nukes, one on the station (which has been propelled far away) and another one in between us and the station.
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057

Re:spending figures

[AFCArchvile]

The spending figures were in the The Boston Globe, from an article about hazing in the Russian military (I can't post the link, slashcode always mangles globe links). The article was written from David Filipov.

Hrm

[ioexcptn]

I'm surprised that Russia can still get Mir's hatch open. Better send some Norwegians... Maybe Russia is planning an extraterrestrial shrine to Natalie Pr0tman and hot grits.

Mir Station and Survior

[S810]

This should make the Survivor Show happy :)

YaY!!

[zentex]

Now i can go up to MIR and live out my dream!
yet....I cant get rich quick in febuary...now i have to wait `til they bring it down...*sigh*

NO SPORK

It seems people missed the point.

[Ektanoor]

No people, the station is going down...
Right here people has talked more and more on bringing it down without question.

Yeah it may live theoretically five years more. But do the risks cost it? The station is really old. Everything there is overaged. Even the main structures. Cosmic radiation does not forget about them also... So upon a certain moment such things turns from national pride to a useless weight and a dnagerous headache. I believe that, if the station was not so battered by lack of funds then it could have lived some years more. No one cared and the station got not only older but also beaten... Right now I consider that it is a risk to hold it up there, as future glitches may be too serious to be controlled. Besides if the real wrong thing happens, then it will be a serious financial burden to the Federation. And a blow in prestige.

Frankly, if I was the decisionmaker I would not send the station into sea. No, I would send it to the Moon. This stuff is somehow a museum. Maybe we cannot bring it down in one piece. But today we can send it only in little pieces today. But future generations would manage to do this in a much better way and save this monument of Mankind.

old but good humor

[tedtimmons]

This is old, but still good:

Top 15 Signs That it's Time to Abandon Your Space Station

-ted

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[ColdGrits]

"Thats funny, I always had the impression that they were all 'jocks' - eg ex-air force, gung-ho all-American heroes"

Yoiu mean like that ex-air force, gung-ho all-American heroe Yuri Gargarin, perhaps?

Typical.

[gaudior]

The damn Russians haven't got enough cash to keep up with their responsibilities towards the spiffy, NEW space station, but they can come up with enough to keep that crappy old double-wide trailer-park POS MIR in orbit awhile longer...

Is anyone else in the USA getting sick of carrying the load for the rest of the planet?

--

Why bother with space exploration.

[billcopc]

Let the damned thing crash and burn.. what I want is my own personal HoloDeck. Then everyone will be able to synthesize little green monsters on little round planets and there won't be any little edge rednecks running around with shotguns.

No! Use it for the Missle Defense Shield Program

[Virtucon]

Naw, don't let it fall to earth and burn up, what a waste. We should use it for target practice for the missle defense shield program. It's big enough that the bozos at the Pentagon and their subcontractors should be able to hit it!

Zombie Mir

[Mechanist]

Someone call Ed Wood! This would make a GREAT low-grade sci-fi film! Just think of it:

"The Mir That Would Not Die"

"Zombie From Space"

They tried to kill it, but it would not die! Watch in horror as the undead space station terrorizes the planet!"

I can just picture Zombie Mir attacking the new space station-- "Brains! BRAINS!"

Science...?

[KjetilK]

So, what is this doing in the "Science"-section? Scientists has stated over and over again that it is impossible to defend having Mir up there from a scientific viewpoint. Just dump the bloody thing!

Re:At least we don't have to worry about splashdow

[luge]

They were all gung-ho air force jocks with advanced degrees. Geek and jock are not mutually exclusive, you know.
~luge

Mir held hostage by mutant space fungus!!

[Mtgman]

Next Mir story: Mir held hostage by mutant fungus. Neo-organism demands net connection and account on /.

*******************Newsflash******************** *******
Today Mir cosmonauts lives hang in the balance as a mutant space fungus threatens to breech the ailing space station's hull. This standoff has been going on for a over 48 hours now with the ground crews desperately scrambling to meet the demands delivered via a encoded DNA strand the fungus dropped into one of the cosmonauts lunch one day, this strand gave him gas. The gas buildup was sequenced so he passed on the message via morse code with his flatulence. The demand? "I want a DSL connection and I want it *NOW* I want karma damn it!"

Mission control sent up a new air tank and scrambled to accomodate the fungus's demands. A bio-sensitive keyboard which can be controlled by chemical signals is being manufactured and is scheduled to be deployed as soon as possible. When asked if it was the policy of Mir's control center to give in to threats of terrorism, a high ranking official replied "All the fungus want's to do is troll Slashdot. Who the hell cares? Who the hell would notice?"

Who indeed?

Steven

GO MIR!$!@

[AntiTuX]

SCHWEET!$#!@ Now i can live my dream of going up to the MIR space station and making it crash into earth. Now THAT'S a way to go :)

Re:GO MIR!$!@

[Errtu]

SCHWEET!$#!@ Now i can live my dream of going up to the MIR space station and making it crash into earth. Now THAT'S a way to go :)

Yeah, like in Dr. Strangelove.

"Aaaaaah! The atmosphere! Aaaaaah!"

Article wrong:$27Mil to bring it DOWN

[milliyear]

According to an article on AP/Yahoo on the same $27 Million, the money was given to bring Mir DOWN safely in February.

Re:Damn!

[cheetham]

Damn! Now there is even less chance it will "accidently" crash onto Redmond :-( Anyone wanna bet how long Mir will last now?

Old is a relative term.

[chaynes]

And no I am not talking about relative as in your Uncle Joe. We need to define OLD here. Let face it most of those who call things old usually lack imagination as to a usefull purpose things can have. The only answer is usually destruction. When you destroy something or throw it away, it still has to go somewhere. How about we take our creative hand and control where it goes or how it is used instead of this Throw-Away(TM) mentality of destruction and let fly see where it lands thinking. I can only think of an morbid example. When I die there are many better things my body can do other than bury it under the ground. My body could be donated to science, or maybe ground up for a high quality fertilizer. Alot of brain power is allocated to destroying things, maybe a balance is needed to have an equal part of societies brain power allocated to giving back what we take. We must control everything to have control. BLah Blah what am I talking about...oh well. I had a point but I cant paint a good picture with words. Thanks.

Re:house?

[talesout]

Fucking crack addicted moderators!

As I said elsewhere, crack addicted means you have your head shoved so far up your ass that you cannot smell anything but your own crack.

This seems to be a pre-requisit for moderation anymore. What a fuck-hole!

Woohoo!

[glowingspleen]

That means that we'll get to see 16 confused American hopefuls jump through all kinds of crazy "cosmonaut hoops" on TV after all!

Highlight from Episode 8: Vomit Comet ride followed immeadiately by a 20-mile emergency landing ocean swim. The last guy to finish gets fed to a shark. The shark will speak russian and get subtitles as he eats.

Mir goes up, Mir goes down, Mir goes ...

[Strepsil]

It seems like every week there's another news story (not just on /., either) about how Mir is going to be fixed up, or brought down, where it'll crash, how it's falling apart or even who is investing money to keep it alive becuase we all know it's a great thing really.

Maybe the Mir folks should partner with Apple.

Or as Homer would say ...

[dustpuppy]

Mir goes up, Mir goes down, Mir goes up, Mir goes down ...

Mir Power Plays

[DHartung]

In case people are still wondering why we get an announcement one week that Mir will come down, and the next week we get one that it will stay up ... and then two or three months down the line the cycle repeats itself ...

The Russian Space Agency is much less in charge of their space program than are the two main contractors (which became private companies after the breakup of the USSR), Energia and Krunichev. These companies can see the writing on the wall: the vaunted Russian space program is no more. They're not sitting around, though. They know that they need to generate business outside of Russia. Energia formed MirCorp as a Western company to attract investment dollars, yes, but also as a base for networking with the European and American aerospace industries.

Some of the constant tug-of-war over ISS and Mir is Energia and Krunichev competing cold-bloodedly for scarce aerospace dollars. Another part of it is these companies singly or jointly playing chicken with the Russian government over the operation of Mir. By forming MirCorp, then holding out their empty pockets, they perform a neat hat trick of appearing to make every effort to attract Western dollars, of appearing to make every effort to become fully privatized and self-sustaining Westernized companies, and of increasing their power to pull the rug out from under the Russian government -- which after all still technically runs the space program and can't bear to see it shut down.

The realistic prospects for MirCorp as a permanent source of funding for Mir were always extremely dubious. Even if you assume that everything in Russia costs less, US$50M is still a ludicrously low figure for the cost of a single Soyuz mission. The true cost to the government of Russia must be several times that. It follows that MirCorp is essentially a way to get hard Western currency directly into the pockets of the Russian space industry, rather than the just-barely-not-worthless Russian government scrip.

If you see another report that Mir is coming down, read it carefully. It's probably a calculated political maneuver, more than hard-and-fast news about the station's fate.
----

Round it up...

[Plonk]

Why dont they just send 4 ageing space cowboys up to keep it in orbit, or perhaps to send it to the moon?

Plonk

Uh duh

[scott1853]

No kidding. What a brilliant observation. However, WE are the only ones with the resources. Besides, I WAS JOKING!

Re: and the shuttle?

[cookieman]

MIR had not ONE chance of big repairs while the shuttle can be easily repaired while is on EARTH!
The shuttle isn't eaten by fungus, I wonder why ...

Me lame moron? Look who's speeking. I do not hide behind Anonymous Coward shit like you....

Re:Damn!

[BenBenBen]

Imagine: 10 strangers, locked into a space station for 10 weeks. Every week, one gets "evicted" after a vote. And all recorded on dozens of cameras, and webcast. Big Brother II: This Time It's Weightless

Re:Damn!

[cheetham]

how would they get evicted? a) send a shuttle each time (very expensive)? b) have 9 escape pods to send people down in (the winner gets to stay there)? c) toss 'em out the airlock?? :)