Goodnight Mir.The saga of Russian space station Mir reads like a soap opera soap opera Broadcast serial drama, characterized by a permanent cast of actors, a continuing story, tangled interpersonal situations, and a melodramatic or sentimental style. . Once Russia's greatest pride, its decay has been plagued by a string of embarrassing breakdowns: power loss, computer failure, and a near-fatal collision with another spacecraft spacecraft Vehicle designed to operate, with or without a crew, in a controlled flight pattern above Earth's lower atmosphere. Since streamlining is not needed in the high vacuum of this environment, a spacecraft's shape is designed according to its mission (see . So after a roller-coaster existence five times longer than experts predicted, the 137-ton Mir will take a permanent vacation. This March it's slated for a computer-controlled burnup over the Pacific Ocean, 3,000 kilometers (1,850 miles) east of Australia. Mir, the first space station designed for long-term human habitation HABITATION, civil law. It was the right of a person to live in the house of another without prejudice to the property. 2. It differed from a usufruct in this, that the usufructuary might have applied the house to any purpose, as, a store or manufactory; whereas , has served as home-away-from-home to more than 100 cosmonauts (Russian astronauts) and astronauts. Throughout its 15-year lifespan, Mir completed over 83,500 orbits (circles) around Earth and its occupants set a number of endurance records, including the most continuous time spent in space (437.7 days) set by cosmonaut cosmonaut: see astronaut. Valery Polyakov in 1994-95. Mir's final crew abandoned ship last June. How does Russia's space agency plan to safely terminate the aging spacecraft? Last January, Russian scientists docked an unmanned, remote-controlled cargo ship to Mir. Armed with giant thrusters (engines), the cargo ship will shove Mir out of orbit and into Earth's atmosphere “Air” redirects here. For other uses, see Air (disambiguation). Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0. . Firing the vehicle's thrusters will steer Mir as it sails over Russia. Then Mir will freefall on a trajectory Trajectory The curve described by a body moving through space, as of a meteor through the atmosphere, a planet around the Sun, a projectile fired from a gun, or a rocket in flight. (curved path) directed to the 6,000 km (3,726 mi)-long and 200 km (124 mi)-wide crash site. As Mir enters Earth's atmosphere, friction (rubbing rubbing, v creating friction and heat by drawing the hands across the body at varying speeds, rhythms, and depths. Benefits include muscle elongation, tension release, and increased flexibility. of objects) may heat up Mir's metal parts to 3,000 [degrees] F, causing them to burst into flames. While two-thirds of Mir is expected to burn to ash before it hits water, more than 50 tons of debris--some pieces weighing up to 080 kilograms (1,500 pounds)--are expected to hammer down on the water at speeds high enough to rip through six feet of concrete. "If we have control up till the last minute," says Yuri Koptev, head of Russia's space agency, "the pieces will fall into the right spot to rest in peace." |
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