[FPSPACE] Core module? (was: Russian gov't authorizes funds for Mir

[Dwayne Allen Day]

On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, David Anderman wrote:

> However, there is a technical 
> solution to the problem that is not a fantasy, and that is a core module 
> based on a different design. There is no law that says that a new Mir core 
> module must be of the same design as the current core module. Perhaps Mr. 

But the problem is not the design of the module, but the fact that it is a
"core" module, which implies that it has to be put in the core of the
station.  How you going to do that?  You have to take the thing apart
first, then hook everything back up.  That would be a bigger construction
job than ISS!

The only possibility is that they want to hook this on somewhere else and
abandon the core module.  But that raises questions of why they want to
abandon the core module.  And if they do, can they reroute all the stuff
from the old core module to the new one?

 
Mr. Anderman's comments were in response to:

> At 12:22 PM 10/26/2000 -0400, JamesOberg@aol.com wrote:
> >The idea that a new Mir-2 module could be docked to the existing Mir seems 
> >to
> >me to be consistent with DDAY's cynical assessment about Mircorp's techical
> >and space operations judgment, and I'm sorry to have to say that but reality
> >must take precedence over wishing them well, which I do.

I'm not cynical, I'm jaded...

Look, I'm no expert on orbital mechanics or Russian technical design or
even Russian space history.  I generally found Mir to be boring (just like
I find ISS to be boring).  And I'm not opposed to the idea of private
commercial spaceflight.  I'm a policy guy and a historian with a very
accutely tuned BS-meter that has been buzzing for months now.

The reason I have been so fascinated by MirCorp is that here is a company
that comes along and seems to base its business strategy on the
intervention of elves and the use of ample amounts of faerie dust.  They
propose things that defy gravity.  And building a new core module is just
more of the same.  I could not be more surprised if they issued a press
release stating that "MirCorp has just signed a deal with Grand Emperor
Xulthorpe of the Zeta Reticulan Star Empire."

Now even discounting all of the practical technical problems, just look at
this from a straight business standpoint:  in the midst of extremely
negative news from Russia about the future of the space station, and after
a complete inability to attract outside investors or customers (other than
a couple of tourists) MirCorp is still acting publicly as if everything is
fine and hundreds of millions of dollars is going to start rolling in now
any doggarned minute.  This is like opening up the casino on the Titanic
after they've  started lowering the lifeboats because some
millionaire says that he feels lucky.  At the very least, by now we
would expect MirCorp to issue a statement like "We are reevaluating our
business strategy because we have generated less revenue than we
expected."  But they appear to be in full denial mode.  At some point, all
the positive spinning they do begins to look either bizarre... or worse.

If you were a bank planning on underwriting their IPO (or a TV network
planning your fall schedule around Mir), would you be reassured by this?



DDAY