BREAKING MIR'S FALL Rosaviacosmos, the Russian Aeronautics and Space Agency, predicts that the Russian Space Station Mir will make its final fiery ride to Earth tomorrow. The 130-ton station is the largest structure ever to be dropped from orbit. To ensure that it drops properly and breaks up in the Earth's atmosphere, representatives from Analytical Graphics (AGI) - a Malvern, PA-based analysis and visualization software provider - are in Moscow working with Russian officials to simulate deorbit. AGI's Flight Services team is working with TsNIIMash, a Russian institute associated with the Russian space agency, to provide situational awareness of events during the deorbit. AGI's Satellite Tool Kit(r) is using spacecraft position and orientation data, as well as timed events such as thruster firings, to create detailed, analytically accurate 3D graphics. The images will be projected in the Russian mission control center and will show Mir as it moves along its flight path toward its eventual break-up. In June of last year, AGI assisted in the re-entry of NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which, like Mir, was too large to burn up entirely in the atmosphere as it fell to Earth. NASA used Satellite Tool Kit to plan a safe re-entry trajectory. For a computer animation and digital still images of the predicted Mir re-entry, visit http://www.nasatech.com/cgi-bin/200102.pl?3-22B . Tom > Pretty quiet on the list today considering we're in the final > hours of Mir's life! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 22 2001 - 12:36:55 PST