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Mir 2
FortKnox writes: "Just when you thought you heard the end of it, Russian engineers unveiled plans for the Mir2. Fortunately, the Russian government has no plans to put this on the agenda. Why can't we all just build the ISS like good little countries??" Taking the Russian space budget into account, this seems unlikely to occur any time soon. But it's nice to dream...
In our media driven society, I'm amazed that space.com didn't include any pictures of the Mir2 design. Of course, if RSC couldn't afford to make any computer renderings, this might limit the media material available.
Of my other space news sources, Spaceflight Now didn't have any information on this and NASA Watch is down this morning. Obviously, the news sources don't put a lot of stake in Mir2 ever getting beyond a few press briefings.
Russia can't even afford to meet it's ISS commitments. Every module of theirs beyond the Service Module (Zvezda) is delayed indefinitely. If Russia doesn't get moving on their Science Power Platform they may never be able to do meaningful science on their side of the station. This could also hamper their commercial asperations such as the Enterprise module.
Russia needs to get off their nationalistic bent and concentrate their efforts on what is there rather than trying to one-up the rest of the world.
World Beach List, my latest project.
I don't know what this guy has against Russia, but I can think of a few reasons why having more than 1 space station would be good.
Firstly, one thing mentioned in the article is orbital inclination. There are things you can only do from certain orbital inclinations and heights, like observe parts of the earth and other celestial bodies, launch and retrieve probes and satellites and examine solar particles. So 2 satellites can do things that 1 can't.
There may also be experiments which can be performed using 2 stations, for example using interferometry.
It will also be good for advancing space technology, especially if one of the countries with the most experience in space launches another station. The fact is Russia will not be able to do all it wants to with the ISS because it is only a partner. I'm sure MIR2 would also be much cheaper than the ISS, more people would be able to perform experiments on it.
Russia is also far more open and cooperative these days, so all space agencies would learn a lot. If we are ever going to send people to mars or for long missions elsewhere we are going to need to know a lot more than we do now.
Finally, I can't be the only person who wants more money to be spent on space exploration. The governments of the world seem to be adept at rationalising funding for the military, spying on other countries and harsher law enforcement but when it comes to advancing the human race they decide it has to be economically viable.
It's 2001, weren't we supposed to have acheived much more by now? Our industrial production and economy is supposed to be a geometric progression, where are all the things we should be able to acheive with all our wealth?
Well I am sure the timing of this publicity has something to do with the auspicious date - 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into space.
Celebrate Yuri's Night near you!
Any competition is good competition when it comes to space. The Russian government currently cannot afford to actually implement the idea, but it's a noble thought. Right now there is no space race, and thus no great urge to push the envelope on what is possible. We need to feel pressured to exceed the limits of this small world we live on and reach out.
The Russians do have a great deal of practical experience and know how when it comes to space stations. The ISS benefits greatly by their participation. Unfortunately for using them to foster a sense of competition, the official russian economy is in no shape to split it's finite space resources between the ISS and any space station of their own.
Few nations have the economies and the drive necessary for a successful self-funded space program, and Russia is sadly not currently one of them. About the only nation besides the United States of America that has the resources and is at least tentatively willing to spend them is the People's Republic of China. The People's Republic of China simply has the problem of being ten to twenty years behind the United States of America in terms of space technology. Even with this gap, the People's Republic of China is our current best hope for an independant competative space program.
The more nations that have agressive space programs the better. Although let's drop this orbiting space station farce and use an existing satellite that has raw materials to build with, the moon.
...so these plans are likely 10 years old, and probably look somwhat like the Russian part of ISS, since that's what the Russian part of ISS was based on. Notice his comments about the insufficient power... hence the (way behind schedule) Russian Science and Power Platform on ISS. (For the curious, the best reference I've seen on the Russian side of ISS is http://www.russianspaceweb.com.)
It's unfortunate the Russians can't get behind the ISS from a national pride point of view. I get the warm fuzzies when I think that this thing might actually work out... the next mission, going up April 19th, has Americans, a Russian, a Canadian, and an Italian going up... if this keeps up, maybe we'll finally be able to get rid of these stupid tribal sensibilities that have kept people at war for thousands of years...
Of course, that's probably against human nature. Oh well...
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Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
- Nietzsche
Informative comment:
Russians have been building this design for a long time. They just dont have the money to launch it.
More design info here.
Site of the space station builders :
Insightful comment:
Russia had a very successfull space program, and has always been a step ahead of America. It has always amazed me that a land of communists, dictators and gulags could produce such enterprising science programmes.
Troll :
GOTO [Insightful Comment].
Moronic Comment:
Can u imagine a fscking Beowulf cluster of fscking Mir2 space stations ?
Flamebait :
Those Russian bfstards cant launch off a paper rocket any more, unless the US gives them a dime.
Funny Comment:
But does it run Linux?
...but Russia's economy could turn around in an instant. The people are quite enthusiastic about capitalism, they just haven't quite worked it out yet, and they have a lot very bright, well-educated people in a huge country with great natural resources.
To paraphrase R.A. Heinlein, they're broke on paper, but they have real wealth, and the latter can always fix the former.
Don't be surprised if this thing goes up in a couple of years.
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