Mir to be dropped into the Pacific Ocean next February.
November 16, 2000 9:34 AM   Subscribe

Mir to be dropped into the Pacific Ocean next February. Is it wise to bring a vessel with a toxic fungus back into our atmosphere and let it swim in the Pacific?
posted by Brilliantcrank (9 comments total)
 
Don't sweat it. It's going to get mighty hot coming in through the atmosphere. It will definitely sterilize anything alive on board. Besides, where do you think that fungus came from, anyway? (hint: up from the Earth with one of the crews.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:55 AM on November 16, 2000


Oh, sure, Steven. That's exactly what I'd expect the obedient tools of a sinister, mind-controlling alien fungus to say! I've heard about this before...
posted by snarkout at 11:43 AM on November 16, 2000


First Iridium, now Mir. Anyone care to guess which will come down first?
posted by Aaaugh! at 11:54 AM on November 16, 2000


What else are they supposed to do with it? There's no way the Russians or anyone else are going to spend the vast quantity of cash required to kick the thing out to escape velocity. If they had that kind of money, they'd be sending a special crew of cosmonauts up to Mir every month just to polish the chrome tailfins. There'd be no talk of deorbiting the station.

Mir is coming back to Earth eventually, just like everything else in low orbit. It might as well happen in a way that doesn't injure anybody but a bunch of plankton.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 12:16 PM on November 16, 2000


My question is, how will this affect Mark Burnett's Destination Mir program? Maybe as a twist ending the winner will get to push the button that sends the station into the ocean... what a ride!
posted by daveadams at 12:19 PM on November 16, 2000


They should sell it on ebay. It will still crash, but I could say I owned a space station for 15 minutes. That would be way cool.
posted by thirteen at 12:26 PM on November 16, 2000


Iridium rises from the dead!

...maybe.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:29 PM on November 16, 2000


Save the Plankton!!!! Whales eat plankton, and as we all learned in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Earth will need the humpback whale to survive!!! ;) hehehe.
posted by terrapin at 12:39 PM on November 16, 2000


Uh...we ARE going to have some interceptor-type missiles pointed at this thingie aren't we? Just in case Yuri the joystick jockey gets nostalgic for the old days and decides to plop this bad boy down in Times Square, effectively turning the entire island of Manhattan into a giant, steaming crater.

Hmmmm.....on second thought.....Cancel the missiles.
posted by Optamystic at 7:30 PM on November 16, 2000


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