Animation 1
This animation shows Mir orbiting around the earth.
The station's orbit is shown as a green
curve while its ground track
on the earth's surface is yellow. Mir completes one orbit approximately every
90 minutes.
The viewpoint for the animation is fixed with respect to the Earth-Centered-Inertial (ECI) coordinate frame, thus the earth rotates and the station moves along its fixed orbit in the animation.
The westward drift of the yellow ground track due to the earth's rotation is apparent as the station completes each of its orbits. It takes about 1 day and 3 hours for the ground track to complete one revolution over the earth's surface. Since the latitude bounds of the track are 51.65 degrees north and south of the equator, it is clear that the most heavily populated regions of the earth are at risk in the event of an uncontrolled reentry of Mir.
Animation 2
This
animation shows one of the braking maneuvers/burns for Mir's
controlled reentry. All the burns
will be implemented by the
Progress M1-5 spacecraft,
currently docked to Mir's
Kvant module, when the
station is over Russia.
Like Animation 1, this animation is shown from a vantage point
fixed to the
Earth-Centered-Inertial (ECI) coordinate frame.
Animation 3
This
animation shows the breakup of Mir during reentry. Breakup will begin at an
altitude of around 60 nmi (110 km) as the lighter external elements of Mir,
including antennas and solar panels, break off the station under the
influence of aerodynamic forces. Catastrophic breakup of the station will
occur when its altitude reaches about 43 nmi (80 km). At this
point, reentry aerothermal heating will have increased the temperatures of
the station's aluminum structural components to their melting points. In
particular, the multiple docking adapter at the end
of Mir's Core Module,
which is made mostly of aluminum, will have melted by this point.
The adapter connects the
Priroda,
Spektr,
Kvant-2, and
Kristall
science modules of the station to
the Core Module.
With its failure, Mir's Core Module,
Kvant 1 module, and docked
Progress M1-5 spacecraft
will separate from the four science modules. This is clearly seen in
Animation 3. The separated modules will continue on, further fragmenting
under excessive aerodynamic loads and heating. The resulting
fragments will disperse and impact in a
reentry debris footprint.
Animation 4
This excellent animation shows the sequence of events for Mir's
controlled reentry from the
final deorbit burn to the impact of its debris in a
reentry debris footprint centered
about 47 degrees south latitude and
140 degrees west longitude in the South Pacific Ocean.