A team of Americans has come up with a plan that the operators of the Mir hope will save them from having to dump the space station into the ocean next year.
The idea, still untested in space, involves attaching a long wire to Mir. The wire, which is to be 7 kilometers long, will generate an electric current as it moves through the Earth's magnetic field.
The aim is to use this low-cost energy to keep Mir in orbit while cash is raised to turn the aging space station into a viable commercial venture, according to Vladimir Syromyatnikov, who oversees the planned project at Rocket Space Corporation Energia, the operators of Mir.
Currently Energia has to send tons of fuel to Mir every year on Progress cargo ships to keep the space station flying. If successful, the electromagnetic tether should do the job for a fraction of the cost, Syromyatnikov said.
Energia, which is based outside Moscow in Korolyov, is negotiating the project with U.S. businessman Walt Anderson and Rick Tumlinson, director of the nonprofit Space Frontiers Foundation. They expect to sign a contract by the end of the year, Syromyatnikov said.
The U.S. space agency is working on a similar project for raising and lowering the orbits of satellites. NASA intends to test the electromagnetic tether next year.
The web site of the Space Frontier Foundation features a banner that says "Keep Mir Alive" and calls for private tax-deductible donations to save the station.
The space station was abandoned by its last crew in August and is orbiting the Earth unmanned. Energia plans to send up another crew next spring to either deorbit the station or extend its life, despite a slow mysterious leak.
Mir, which turns 14 in February, has far surpassed its expected life span and has experienced a series of problems in recent years. But Energia believes it is still fit to fly for two or three more years.
The government and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency have turned their attention and limited resources toward the International Space Station. They have insisted that Mir will be ditched unless private investors are found to cover the $100 million annual cost of keeping it in orbit.
If a success, the electromagnetic tether will allow Energia to keep Mir operating while Anderson and Tumlinson try to bring in Western investors, such as pharmaceutical companies, to fund research at the station.
"We hope it will work out," Syromyatnikov said in a recent interview.
The Foundation for the International Nongovernmental Development of Space, or FINDS - headed by Tumlinson and funded in part by Anderson - has already allocated more than $200,000 to develop the tether and is also looking for investors for Mir.
Syromyatnikov said Tumlinson and Anderson appear to be "serious people," who unlike previous negotiators, such as self-proclaimed trash mogul Peter Llewellyn, will come up with the cash.
Tumlinson called it a "very real project."
"Mir is going to be in the sky for a long time. It will just be under new ownership," he said in a telephone interview earlier this week.
The two Americans signed an official memorandum with Energia head Yury Semyonov in October in Korolyov and they are to meet again in the Moscow region city to sign an official contract by the end of the year, Syromyatnikov said.
The tether, which will cost some $30 million to manufacture, would be sent to Russia next year, he said.
Cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Sergei Zaletin, who are now training in Star City for a flight to Mir in February or March, have been informed of the plan to have them try to generate energy with the help of the tether, the Energia official said.
Syromyatnikov said the two cosmonauts would be required to take a space walk to fix one end of the tether to the exterior of Mir. The other would be hooked onto a Progress before it is jettisoned into space.
One scenario has the two cosmonauts remaining on Mir until midsummer to test the tether rather than preparing the station for deorbiting in March or April.
Energia spokesman Sergei Gromov said the planned deal with Tumlinson is expected to bring in "tens of millions of dollars" that will be used to extend the two cosmonauts' stay.
The Russian space station received a boost this week from the State Duma, which has opposed the plans to scrap it. The lower house allocated 1.5 billion rubles in the 2000 federal budget to extend Mir's life at least until the end of the next year.
More cash could fill Energia's coffers if the European Space Agency decides to sent another astronaut to Mir with Kareli and Zaletin, as it has indicated it might.
"In short, we do not intend to deorbit the station next year," Gromov said.
Yet despite Energia's efforts, senior government officials still believe Mir's time has past. Russian Aviation and Space Agency general director Yury Koptev has said his agency needs all its state funding for constructing and launching modules for the International Space Station and reinforcing Russia's telecommunications satellite fleet.
The space agency has repeatedly delayed the launch of the international station's Service Module due to a lack of cash and more recently to problems with its launcher. NASA has pushed Russia to concentrate on fulfilling its commitments.