Sweet 16 is out of reach...

[alexpgp]

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Mir space station. Over its lifetime, 39 manned spacecraft visited the station (including 9 Shuttle missions), as did 65 unmanned vehicles (mostly Progress cargo vehicles). The station massed 19 tons at launch, and with the addition of various modules and science hardware, the complex grew to over 120 metric tons. Mir served as the test bed for the modular method of constructing a space station, and this experience is being put to use currently in the assembly of the International Space Station.

The old, creaky station is currently losing about 900 meters of altitude daily, largely as the result of increased Solar activity, which has caused the upper layers of the atmosphere to accelerate by about 50% the braking effect on the station's orbit. By early March, Mir will be in a critically low orbit.

There has been no money or other resources available to save the station, and now there is no time.

Happy birthday, Mir. It's been nice knowing you.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Is increased solar activity the reason they raised the altitude of the ISS this trip?

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it's the one-and-only reason for the reboost, but would be very surprised if it wasn't a factor.

You can pretty much depend on the Shuttle reboosting the station to a higher orbit any time it visits, since the Shuttle's thruster assets are available and it's better to use them than the thrusters on the station for such jobs.

Keeping the station in orbit is a balancing act. You don't want the complex orbiting too high, else it becomes "expensive," propellant-wise, to get to it from the Earth, nor too low, else its orbit degrades rapidly, leading to a deorbit.

Cheers...

poor mir

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Russian space technology. :)