Slashdot Mirror
Mir: Rest in Pieces
Space.com is giving the splashdown time at 12:58 AM EST, which seems to agree with what everyone else is saying. Unless I can find a more precise time, I'll go with that.
Mir stats: first piece launched Feb. 20, 1986. Returned to Earth Mar. 23, 2001. Total orbits: 86,331 (that's a Trivial Pursuit question in the next edition, guaranteed). Longest stay: 438 days, Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, currently the record-holder for longest stay in space. Debris footprint: 120 miles by 3,600 miles, centered around 44 S latitude and 150 W longitude.
Jacek Fedorynski took a look at Guess When Mir Will Splash and drew up this nice histogram of the guesses. He also notes that the median guess for Mir's return to Mother Earth was 2001-03-19 10:11:01.
Good guesses:
- 2001-03-23 02:02:02 - looks like 'cowkiller' is our champion Mir-guesser
- 2001-03-23 04:07:33
- 2001-03-23 04:27:42
- 2001-03-23 04:37:28
- 2001-03-22 21:37:19
- 2001-03-22 21:21:21
- 2001-03-23 06:12:25
...by searching for "MIR space station". Does anyone have a mirror or pdf of the actual bidding page? There aren't many auction pages worth saving, but the Seattle earthquake rubble (~30 min after the quake) and the one for MIR salvage are pretty funny.
I think not...(*poof*)
Reminds me of that movie "The Andromeda Strain".
Look at the timestamp on the start of the auction, versus the actual splashdown time. I doubt this is a legit auction....
I knew it wouldn't take long before someone thought up the bright idea (pun not intended) of putting the remains of Mir up on eBay. :-)
It'll be interesting to see how many verifiable pieces of Mir remains are posted on various eBay auctions. Some pieces could go for thousands of dollars.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
Anyone have an mpeg copy of the reentry movie? It seems everything on the net is either Quicktime, Real or AVI.
Ok, so the book might not be out yet, and i've no idea about t-shirts, but the movie is here, and lots more besides at the good old BBC.
ooooooh! What does this button do? - DeeDee, Dexters Lab.
In episode 107 Kenny was Hit by Mir, undead via Worcestershire Sauce, and cut lengthwise by a chainsaw.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
Left claw North! RIGHTCLAWSOUTH!!
Zubenelgeubi and Zubeneschamali, the claws of scorpion?
Puesto que el Mir es de ruso, creo que la frase correcta es "Mne khochitsa Taco Bell".
O si prefieres en lugar: "Ya khachu Taco Bell".
...the personal ship of the station's last commander was found empty in the Coriana 6 system today. His whereabouts are currently unknown...
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Actually, a billion is a thousand million, not a million million.
When I was a kid, a billion was a million million. But these days it seems that the definition of it as a thousand million is almost ubiquitous (I don't agree, but I go with the flow).
I think this is because it a politician and advertisers billion, looks impressive, everybody goes "wow! look at how many Billions! BillyG has!", and "look how our kind leaders are pumping Billions! into promoting thermonuclear destruction..", "Microsoft is great, Billions! of people buy Windows!!!!!!!"
I'm too cynical for this shit. 10^9 is quicker to type.
EZ
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
The photo acompanies this article but it's much smaller (though better detailed).
They also have a link to a RealVideo Clip which was obviously filmed on a camcorder but manages to catch quite a bit of the debris fly-over.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
If in 25 years Mir is mentioned along with a footnote to Taco Bell... then we (as Americans) have done a great evil.
It's already going to happen. Haven't you seen Demolition Man?
To a Star:
Power of the Russians
Glory of the Skies
Oldest of man's Satellites
You have inspired the dreams of thousands
Fulfilled the hopes of many
Brightened the eyes of millions
Your trip is now finished
Your journey complete
You have done well
We salute you.
Rest in Peace
Mir
23 March 2001
Blog,Twitter
CNN is reporting at 05:58GMT the Russian Mir Space Station has splashed into the Pacific Ocean. Full details can be found here. Personally, it was a little bittersweet to witness the end of an era. After all, Mir had spent somewhere near 3.5 billion (million million for the UKians in the audience) miles and 15 years in space. It really was a remarkable piece of technology, but Russians really should be applauded for the accuracy of the descent. From what I understand they only missed the targeted area by a few hundred miles. Maybe they had representatives from the Mars Polar Lander team... :)
If I could only live my life with my threshold at 4...
... or the marketing people at Taco Ball will have pulled off one of the greatest, most successful advertising stunts of all time.
kugano
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane! It's a really obvious although not very creative reference to Superman!
When will Windows be ready for the desktop?
Space.com has some pictures of MIR's re-entry. MIR hit the water at 05:58 GMT Mar 23.
Sigh. Once again, science fiction over science fact. Or at least the reality that if there were any "Deadly Space Microbes"(TM) that magically attached themselves onto Mir, there's no more risk than there has been over the last 5 billion years during which similar microbes have made their way down to the lower atmosphere from either outer space, or those that somehow managed to be lofted up from the lower depths of the atmosphere, and managed to stick around long enough to mutate.
Oops - that means that nature might do EXACTLY THE SAME THING. How dare it.
The entire concept of "a heathly environment" is fallacious. If you require proof of this, go to some remote place and see how healthy the environment is for you. Just from natural water supplies you won't be able to drink, malaria, and the fact that many wild beests won't care about killing you, I think you'll find that Earth (and probably every other place in the Universe) is a pretty hostile place to be.
And for THAT matter, why is shooting Mir out into space or into the Sun any more "environmentally friendly" than wontonly dumping your trash into some land fill? Basically that IS the hypocrasy that you're suggesting; it's nothing more than a new gloss on "not in my back yard".
I think this makes for a very dangerous precedent. I am talking about all the mutant microbs and bacteria that Mir was carrying.
Who knows what survived the plunge into the ocean, or even went foating on earth's atmosphere?
They should have boost it out into the sun or empty space; but of course, that would've cost a lot more money, and as always, money is king in this world. Who cares about a healthy environment when we can save a buck.
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
here is a rather sketcthy auction for a piece of the space station:
& item=1126537064
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
this appeared very soon after splashdown, and by a user clearly created just to sell "mir-wreckage". could a boat really pick up pieces of mir? charred hunks of spacestation don't seem like they would be floating and easily spottable. also, this would be very easy to scam adequately, with a blowtorch and some twisted metal/plastic/fiberglass, although the experts could probably tell.
maybe someone can put up a bid, pain the slashdot logo over the char marks, and offer it as a second prize for people who didn't win the slashdot pt cruiser.
-=tonyt=-
I would disagree. People view this as an achievement of Russian people, not of the Soviet Regime. Besides, as a Russian, I would tell you that it was much more painful to read stories about an "ailing space station", and go over constant wise-cracks about Russians not being able to support it like they did.
People seem to forget, that Russia is smaller than Soviet Union was. We don't have Southern republics any more, and we don't even have Baikonur launch facilities -- they belong to Kazakhstan now. For over a decade Russia has been in a very bad economical and political situation. I mean -- US has an economical recession now and people scream bloody hell as NASDAQ falls below certain points. This is NOTHING compared to the situation in Russia, although things are looking much better than they did in the early nineties.
Don't forget, also, that we built a big part of the Alpha station -- and salaries for our engineers are incomparable to the ones at NASA.
I'd say that we should be DAMN proud of our history and of our achievements. And believe me -- you haven't heard the last of us yet. ;) (in a good sort of way, of course).
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
The auction is an E-Bay classic - almost as good as when people put Elian up for auction (Descripton was something like "Surplus government property for sale, small boy, age 6, can tread water...". My favorite bidder tho is: this one.
==
It was live on CNN, the altitude counter hit 0 at around 5:58 GMT
Tux Games. Your complete source for native Linux games.
That's not a meteor, it's a space station!
--
mrBlond
CowboyNeal for president!
"Hit any user to continue."
... it didn't kill Kenny?
main(i){putchar((1397178701>>(i/2+(i==3))*8)+(i/2
Its nice when something in the space industry goes as well as this did. Unfortunately, hopes of free taco's have gone unfullfilled. If by some off chance you havent seen the video of it over Fiji yet, check it out. http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/03/23/mir.desce nt/index.html
Very cool stuff. Congratulations and condolences to everyone who helped to bring it down so successfully.
"Open the pod by doors, Hal" > "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave" sudo "Open the pod bay doors, Hal" > alright
There's one major reason why they don't send it out to space. It would cost too much in terms of fuel. It's a lot easier to slow the orbit so it falls to earth, than to escape the earth's gravity, when you're dealing with something that has as much mass as Mir. Also the thrust required may cause bits to drop off, adding to space junk threatening the ISS and anything else going into space.
Hacker: A criminal who breaks into computer systems
"Information wants to be paid"
--
I still remember the advice my father gave me: Never get in anything Russian-made with an airlock."
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
No, it missed!
---------------------
%46%55%43%4B !
The REAL jabber has the /. user id: 13196
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Er... Well, y'know. You can't make an omelette without um... destroying a forest. Or something.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Er... Well, y'know. You can't make an omelette without um... destroying a forest. Or something.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Well now Paco Rabanne's last chance to see his predictions come true have vanished in the Pacific. I want my money back for me lucky charms Paco!
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
"Mir, after successfully entering the earth athmosphere and crashing into the ocean has resurfaced and is on a direct collision course with Tokyo (which holds a patent on catastrophic dinosaur distruction)"
--
Jon - TheSpork
One of my network servers is named Mir, others are named after the Apollo Lunar Landers (LEM's): i.e. Eagle, Intrepid, Aquarius, Antares, Falcon & Orion. Now all these spacecraft have something in common: They all did their jobs as they were designed and intended to do, some even went far above and beyond the call of duty (Aquarius and Mir). They all were intentionally discarded at the end of their missions. All my namesake servers are still on duty and running well, however ;-)
I guess I must be a true nerd, because as Mir was burning up in the atmosphere, I felt like crying.
The auction for the piece of mir has now been hit up by a troll or two....
and also, someone has a sense of humor.....
If in 25 years Mir is mentioned along with a footnote to Taco Bell... then we (as Americans) have done a great evil.
I am Jack's HTTP Server
I don't know what media says - I tend to ignore it. But this event gives me a sence of loss and sadness. Most of my concious life I lived with knowledge, that up there there is "Mir". Now it is gone and not much is left. I did not view it as a part of communist Russia, I view it as a proud achievement of russian people and "Mir. I'll go drown my sorrow in vodka (guess stereotypes were right).
In reading some articles and watching some of the news stories about MIR on TV it's become apparent that the Russians are looking upon this event as a solemn moment. With this being one of the few remnants of communist Russia, they view it as the end of the successful Russia, the Russia which rivaled the United States in it's space program. Being as I'm not Russian, I'm curious to see if there are any Russian slashdot readers that can confirm or shed some light on the mood in Russia. Part of me can see the logic behind what the media is saying but part of me sees some sensationalism as well.
--
--
silence is poetry.