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ZL2VAL > SAREX 19.03.01 17:06l 76 Lines 3124 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 5408-ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: Mir AR Status: March 12, 2001
Path: DB0AAB<DB0FSG<I4UKI<IK6RUY<IK6PYS<IK1ZNW<HA3PG<PP5BLU<PY3KW<ZL2TZE
Sent: 010315/0708Z @:ZL2TZE.#73.MLB.NZL.OC #:25886 $:5408-ZL2VAL
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2TZE.#73.MLB.NZL.OC
To : SAREX@WW
By Miles Mann WF1F,
MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division)
Hi Everyone:
It's been a few weeks since my last MAREX news. A lot work here back
home And lots of snow (3 feet in 3 days, that's a lot for Boston).
Mir:
The Russian Space Station Mir will be retired some time between March
20-28. The controllers in Moscow have been slowly lowering the orbit of
Mir from 250 miles down to approximately 150 miles above the earth's
surface. The Russian controllers still have full control over the Mir
Space Stations boosters. Each day the orbit will lower by approximately
1.2 miles per day, until it reached the 137-mile mark. Then the
on-board computers will take over and fire the engines for one last burn
to dive the space station into the Pacific Ocean.
When Mir reenters the earth atmosphere, it will look like a fiery
meteorite. Most of the 140-ton space station will burn up in the earth's
atmosphere. A few of the smaller chunks will splash down in the South
Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand.
People living in Japan and New Zealand may be able to see the station as
it makes is last fiery decent. Amateur Radio stations living along the
Pacific Rim, will be able to bounce radio signals off the Ion trail of
the Mir station and may be able to have a few minutes of "meteor bounce"
propagation. In that trail of Ions will not only be tons of expensive
test equipment but it will also include several amateur radio projects,
including:
Icom 228h 2-meter transceiver
Icom 70cm Repeater (SAFEX II)
Kenwood TM-733 dual band transceiver
Kewnood TM-V7A dual band transceiver (Marex SSTV system)
Kantronics KPC-9612 TNC (Marex Email system)
PacCom TNC
When Mir goes, I will be sad. She served us well during her historic 15
year Mission. The Mir Station reminds me a little of the fictional TV
series, Star Trek. Mir boldly went where no one has gone before and
paved the way for her little child, Space Station Alpha. Do you remember
Start Trek 3, In search of Spok? At the end of the Movie, we all shed a
tear, when the Enterprise NCC-1701 burnt up in the atmosphere of the
Genesis planet. So too will Mir bun up as she head for her splash down
in the pacific.
I found a web page seems to have a good plot of Mir and its final orbit.
http://www.MirReentry.com/
Insurance Policy:
The Russians have take out an Insurance polity on Mir for 200,000,000.
Just in the remote case a few chunks reach land can cause damage. If
anyone does find a chuck, it would be nice to find one to the fragments
of the Amateur Radio stations, especially the ones with my name written
on the bottom.
Copyright 2001 Miles Mann, All Rights Reserved. This document may be
freely distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers),
Usenet, and World-Wide-Web. It may not be reproduced for profit including,
but not limited to, CD ROMs, books, and/or other commercial outlets without
prior written consent from the author.
DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F
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