Why have plans been made to destroy Mir?

Flying at its current low orbit, and operating in its current manned capacity, the costs of maintaining Space Station Mir are simply not justifiable for Russia's strained economy. The Space Station Mir currently flies at a very low orbit, around 300 kilometers above the earth's surface. In space dimensions, this elevation is less than half the elevation of InfoTelesys' Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that will fly at 700 km above the earth.  To put it further in perspective, InfoTelesys' Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites will fly at 10,360 km, and the IT GEO's can fly as high as 60,000 km above the earth.

Mir's low orbit causes the 130-ton Space Station to be constantly pulled toward Earth, necessitating its constant maintenance and requiring the station to be continually shot back up.  The cost of maintaining Mir as a Manned Space Station is around two hundred and fifty to three hundred million dollars each year.  The Russian government simply cannot afford the expense.

How old is Mir?
Mir is a highly advanced Space Station designed around an advanced modular architecture.  There are currently six modules making up Mir, each was launched on a different date and docked to the Mir complex:

Module IT GEO 6 - Priroda     IT GEO 5 - Spektr IT GEO 4 - Kristall  IT GEO 3 - Kvant-2  IT GEO 2 - Kvant-1  IT GEO 1 - Mir Core Take a tour of the Mir modules.

Launch Date 1996 1995 1990 1989 1987 1986

IT GEO 6 is only five years old and would last for many decades; IT GEO 5, only six years old, IT GEO 4 is eleven years old, IT GEO 3 is twelve, IT GEO 2 fourteen and IT GEO 1, the Core module is fifteen.

Mir modules are NOT OLD!  The modules have decades more life left in them.  The modules were engineered for well over a decade of service.

What about damage?
In June, 1997 when Russia started attempting to dock unmanned Progress re-supply ship's, the Progress transport missed the docking port and bumped into the Spektr module (IT GEO 5), causing the module to depressurize.  The crew onboard simply sealed off Spectr until it could be repaired.  The worst damage was to batteries onboard  Spectr, InfoTelesys will be replacing these and other batteries on the station.

To understand the magnitude of the 1997 "fender bender", one simply has to recognize that many manned missions have been flown safely to Mir since 1997.

What about the fire?
When an oxygen generator caught fire on the station, and burnt out.  The damage, nerves (mostly American) and smoke.

In regard to the press lambasting Mir, we should possibly ask if we are not seeing NIH (Not Invented Here) and a bit of jealousy from the western press?

What needs to be fixed?
InfoTelesys' un-manned data and communications center requirements for Mir naturally necessitate upgrading systems on the station.  There are four areas that need attention.

1. Shot the Mir up to a higher orbit.  Progress rockets are already attached to Mir to accomplish this.  We would need to send an additional rocket or rockets to take Mir to Geo-synchronous orbit.
2. Repair Mir's gyroscopes which are currently not operational
3. Upgrade Mir's communication systems which are old and failed temporarily in January when the station lost power.  InfoTelesys would naturally significantly upgrade the communication systems.
4. Upgrade solar cells, power systems and batteries.
5. Install InfoTelesys' computer systems.

Russian engineers have cost estimated the initial maintenance mission at $70 million U.S.  This does not include InfoTelesys equipment and raising Mir to GEO elevation.  Another two missions would probably be necessary at a cost of roughly thirty million per mission.  Overall, for InfoTelesys the cost of upgrading Mir can workout substantially more cost effective than building the IT Sats™ from scratch, something we would be doing anyway.  InfoTelesys will still build IT Sats™, even if we run out of time to save Mir.