From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Date: Wed Jun 02 1999 - 07:48:37 MDT
Chuck Kuecker wrote:
> At 06:30 PM 6/2/99 +1000, Emlyn wrote:
> >
> >I'm buying a hard hat. Harmlessly dropping in the pacific sounds too
> >much like raining fiery death on random bits of Australia.
> >
> >I hope they get funding to stay up there...
> >
>
> What would be the problem with boosting Mir to a HIGHER orbit? It took an
> enormous amount of energy to get it all up there - how much more would it
> take to preserve it for either future use or as a monument to the history
> of space exploration?
>
> It looks to me like the powers that be would rather enjoy a fireworks
> disply costing billions than spend a few thousand to preserve. Remember
> Skylab!
The problem is that its such an ungainly kluge of obsolete crap that a) you'd
need to send a manned mission up there to boost it up without turning it into a
useless heap of spinning junk, and b) its not worth the expense of (a), since
the Russians have already bought their ticket onto the Internation Space Station
(admittedly with Russian technology that already is showing signs of wear and
obsolescence) they don't need their own anymore.
Additionally the loss of the station might be used by nationalist forces in
Russia as an example of how far the liberal factions have allowed mother Russia
to fall, possibly to motivat the people to do better/more, whatever.
Mike Lorrey
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