Analysis of Mir Reentry Breakup

Abstract

This report presents an analysis of the CNN video of the Mir reentry, which was generated and supplied by Hugh Williams. The analysis determined how and when the space station's individual modules mechanically separated from each other. Also, the subsequent time and location of the aerothermal breakup (melting) of several of the modules was established. The aerothermal breakup was consistent with numerous satellite reentries studied by the author. (4 tables, 13 figures)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 11, 2003
Accession Number
ADA421506

Entities

People

  • Richard G. Stern

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Aerodynamic Heating
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Altitude
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Atmosphere Entry
  • Atmospheric Density
  • Dynamic Pressure
  • Equations
  • Materials
  • Orbits
  • Sea Level
  • Space Stations
  • Spacecraft
  • Trajectories
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Business Analytics
  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Neural Network Machine Learning.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris