[FPSPACE] ISS' "thin margins of safety"

[Bob Christy]

An adapted Progress could be an effective way of dealing with a re-boost.
With the specially-built Progress for delivering "Pirs" to the ISS, and the
Mir re-entry, Russia has demonstrated the capability to mount such a
mission. It would take a significant policy change by the US government to
help it happen as I don't see Russia agreeing to pay for it.

After departure from the ISS, it might not be necessary to let "mother
nature take care of the rest". As long as the Progress were still
controllable, a small "push" just before natural decay could be used to
direct re-entry at a safe location.

In the context of the total amount of fuel involved in a reboost mission,
the difference between lowering the orbit by 100 km and causing a re-entry
would not be significant.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Gottschalk" <kgottschalk at uwc.ac.za>
To: <fpspace at friends-partners.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2004 12:21 PM
Subject: [FPSPACE] ISS' "thin margins of safety"


....................It would seem that the most effective immediate measure
would be to pay for an extra Progress, whose entire cargo volume is adopted
to be a tanker..........................reserve just enough propellant to
slow it down to a lower orbit, say 100 kms below ISS, & let mother nature
take care of the rest.