January 27, 2000
Vacation 200?
In 1873, Jules Verne wrote a book about a trip around the world called
Around the World in Eighty Days
. Sometime in the next decade, it may be possible to take a vacation trip that will take you around the world in ninety minutes!
How might such a trip be possible?
The Mir space station, launched by Russia on February 20, 1986, may soon become available for wealthy vacation travelers. Because Mir is currently orbiting the Earth about every ninety minutes, the adventurous vacationers on board would be orbiting the Earth almost 16 times per day!
Currently, Mir is not being used at all and has been empty for nearly half a year. It was scheduled to be destroyed by crashing it into the Pacific Ocean in August.
However, there is now hope for saving Mir. Russia's space agency announced on January 20 that non-government financing had been found to keep Mir operating. Now there will be a cargo flight on February 1, and a new crew will go aboard in April.
The money to keep Mir operating is coming from a United States investment firm. A principal in this firm believes that wealthy adventurers will be willing to pay as much as $25 million to take a vacation on Mir. (The first tourist might have to pay a premium price of $40 million.) He also believes that it can make money as a commercial laboratory where companies can rent space for various experiments.
Can this bold plan be put into practice? It will take considerable effort to rehabilitate Mir for its new commercial life. The Mir is old and is known to have problems. There is an air and pressurization leak that was caused by a 1997 crash with an unmanned cargo rocket. In addition, there is corrosion of the hull, metal fatigue, and chemical contaminants.
Another problem is that Mir's orbit has been gradually decreasing over the years and is now at its lowest point ever. If Mir is to continue in orbit, it will need a reboost, as has been provided several times in the past. From the chart, you can see how the orbit has dwindled and when reboosts have been given. How much higher do you think Mir should be before you would visit it for a vacation? How many reboosts would it take to achieve that height?
Current tentative plans call not only for fixing all of Mir's problems and giving it the required reboosts, but also for adding more rooms to make Mir even larger.
Clearly, visiting Mir would be an unusual vacation. But would it be fun? Among some of those who have spent time in Mir, opinions seem to be divided. Some would not recommend the trip and would not go back. Others say that they would tell people that it would be the most significant thing they could ever do in their lives.
In the past, Mir has been a busy place for visiting cosmonauts and scientists. There have been 43 missions to Mir since it was launched. Ninety-six cosmonauts have visited Mir, 19 of them twice. However, the real veterans are Anatoly Solovyev, who visited five times, and Alexander Viktorenko, who visited four times. The first American astronaut joined an international crew in 1995. Beginning in March of 1996, American astronauts were a regular part of interchanging crews and worked with the Russian cosmonauts.
The longest stay by a man on Mir was 438 days by Valery Polyakov in 1995. An American, Shenon Lusid, holds the women's endurance record at 183 days.
How long a vacation on Mir would you like to take?
If a Mir visit does not appeal to you, you might want to consider one of the vacation options that NASA is seriously considering making available in the future.
Learn More
You can watch a continually updated track of Mir's path around the Earth. You can also observe that path and the paths of other orbiting Earth satellites in 3-D from the same site.
At the Mir Space Station site, you can find a guide to Mir, a schematic diagram of Mir, and a complete list of Mir missions.
Riverdeep's Physics Explorer – Gravity contains three activities that will help you understand the various forces that affect an orbiting satellite. (Activities require Logal Express. Get a free trial subscription.):
You may be interested in ordering the following book: Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir
