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

Rename it:

[manichawk]

At this rate, it should be renamed to:

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

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.

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"

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 /.)

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.

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?

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....