Exit Mir

The Russians have finally decided to scrap Mir, the longest-operated space station in history.

Posted by Tormod Guldvog
19 April, 2004 08:04:29

For most of us, Mir has become a household name. After years of power failures, oxygen leaks, and other, more pressing emergencies, we have all sat in front of the TV wishing that things would work out in the end.

And usually they did. The history of Mir is one of success. Numerous research experiments were conducted on everything from growing plants in microgravity, to the problems the crew experienced with bone structure and other effects of living in a weightless environment.

But most of all, Mir will be remembered for it's heroic crew, whose cosmonauts broke record after record by spending hundreds of days in solitude on the space station.

When Mir finally goes down, any old science buff could be forgiven for getting sentimental. But the next generation is set to take over. There is a new kid on the block, and this time the US and Russia work together: The Internation Space Station.

So indulge in our collection of links to Mir information, and don't forget to take our poll.

(Over time these links have gone dead one after the other...if you have good Mir links which should be on this page, please e-mail them to editor@hypography.com.)

Related Links

Official MIR page by NASA
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/mir/index.html
This is NASA's official website for the Russion manned space station MIR.

History of Mir Space Station
http://www.maximov.com/Mir/mirhistory1.asp
Key events in the history of Mir, along with some photographs and links.

NASA Shuttle/Mir Web
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/index.html
This is the website for a joint project, where American astronauts spent time on Mir to do research for the International Space Station.

The Mir space station complex
http://home.attbi.com/~rusaerog/mir/Mir_3D.html
This page was mainly written in 1990. It is a very thorough description of projects, crew, and the craft; with lots of illustrations.

Keep Mir Alive!
http://www.space-frontier.org/Mir/
The Space Frontier Foundation has a campaign with the aim of saving Mir.

Mir Space Station-Over 14 Years In Orbit
http://www.satellite.eu.org/sat/vsohp/mir.html
A page with history and links related to the research done aboard the Mir space station.

Mir Interactive Display
http://www.spaceviews.com/features/mir/display/index.html
A detailed look at each of the components of Mir, with a clickable map and statistics for each section.

Take a tour of Mir
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mir/tour.html
A great presentation of the Russian space station Mir. Click your way around, see pictures and videos from each section.

Six Months on Mir
http://www.sciam.com/1998/0598issue/0598lucid.html
A story from Scientific American, written by Shannon W. Lucid, an American astronaut who spent six months on Mir.