Work ended for Mir when the Russian space lab took a fiery plunge into the South Pacific on March 23, but it is just beginning for those in the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS) at The Aerospace Corporation.
Dr. William Ailor, CORDS director, said his team is “gathering as much data as we can” so they can accurately characterize how Mir broke up and what parts of the space station survived reentry.
Ailor said CORDS is “fusing” data from a wide variety of sources to develop “as clear a picture as possible” for NASA, which requested the characterization.
CORDS performed the same type of work for the space agency in reconstructing the reentry of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which was successfully deorbited in June 2000.
But at 17 tons, “Gamma” was a mere infant compared with Mir, which weighed about 140 tons.
“We’re collecting data and trying to reconstruct the trajectory and see if any pieces can actually be recovered, see what came down,” said Dr. Russ Patera, a senior engineering specialist assigned to CORDS.
Patera said that multiple objects were observed and that the CORDS team is investigating the breakup “to increase our understanding of how something this large comes apart and at what altitude.”
He said what is learned can be applied to future deorbits, such as the controlled reentry of the International Space Station at the end of its life, perhaps 15 years hence.
Patera said the company’s Flight Mechanics Department has developed “exceptionally accurate models and simulation tools based on data collected over 30 to 40 years.”
What is being learned from the Mir event will add to that body of knowledge, he said.
