MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-As President Clinton stated in his Economic Forum speech, “The United States is unambiguously committed to open markets and trade as the best engine we know of to lift living standards, reduce environmental destruction and build shared prosperity.”
Space station technology was spawned by the launch early in the 1960s of Russia’s Sputnik satellite. A decade later, in 1971, Russia launched its first space station, which ended with Mir’s seventh space station construction. The Mir provided the experience of longstanding manned space flights.
After decades of knowledge gained by the Mir project, the United States benefited directly from Russia’s experience with assembling space station modules, which was pioneered by the Russian Salute and the Mir space stations. Finally, the operational experience that was enjoyed in 1998 by NASA was transferred without any U.S. taxpayer dollars for the Russian efforts of 30 years ago.
Frank Culbertson, director of the shuttle-Mir Phase 1 Program stated, “It’s very difficult to imagine beginning Phase 2 without doing what we’ve done during the shuttle-Mir program. We have to keep our eye on the future. We have to realize that the Earth is not going to be our only home forever. We need to go beyond it.”
Today, Mir has the potential to eliminate the crippling debt that has burdened the once prosperous Russian economy. The private investment generated from voice-over-Internet Protocol and broadband projects, which would be jointly pilot-tested by TransGlobalNet.com, a Silicon Valley firm, and a consortium of investors from the Virgin Islands, is estimated at $12 billion until 2003. These private funding sources will allow Russia to have more funds to invest in its people and their futures. Russia will have a more open society, corruption will be cleaned up, universal access to education will be achieved and basic social problems will be solved by maintaining the Mir space station until 2006.
The first phase of this new historical project will be the reactivation of the space station with life support systems, and Russian space crews will re-enter the Mir as early as March 2000 to begin a new step for humanity by preparing the Mir to serve the needs of global electronic banking, monitoring for global warming and free global long-distance learning.
Prior to NASA’s October 1998 budget approval to complete the service module that will house the astronauts and propel the International Space Station, many journalist skeptics said Russia was not up to the task. After a flawless Russian Zenith missile launch from Kazakhstan, the 63-foot-long Zarya control module with its 78-foot sun panels was attached to the minuscule Unity module. The Zarya is a 42,000-pound module, similar in design to the Mir’s core module. This precision feat was accomplished through the close cooperation during the seven long-duration flights to Mir and the seamless working relationship between both the Russian and American control centers.
The United States had patterned the International Space Station directly from the Mir and called it its own concept design. On Nov. 20, 1998, when the Zarya control module was launched, it was called a “tugboat” by the American press.
According to James Hartsfield, NASA spokesman, the service module that was launched in March 1999 was completed on time. RSC Energia, the builder of the Mir, and Khrunichev and Boeing, the builders of the International Space Station service module, have a history of meeting deadlines as long as the resources continue. The same Russian and U.S. firms are well-known for the innovative SeaLaunch platform located in Long Beach, Calif.
In the first quarter of this year, a three-member Mir crew will be delivered in orbit on a Soyuz rocket. The crew will begin to re-activate the Mir station. Regular crews will begin to rotate until January 2004 when the final assembly launch of the International Space Station is scheduled to be completed.
Mir has the potential to serve as a natural telecommunications transmission network hub for the global Internet. Music titles, instructional training tapes, multimedia and VoIP are key projects that TransGlobalNet.com will provide as a service provider for the Mir.
The International Space Station not only will take six years to build, but it will cost in excess of $96 billion.
In the meantime, the Mir is completed and available now to be converted into a true telecommunications/Internet transmission point for the global economy that will accelerate learning and a true globalized world, with Russia as a core unifying element of the 21st century. With the use of the Mir, the dream of a world with no boundaries to knowledge can now be realized through Russia’s powerful capabilities in science and technology.
Why must the world wait five years for the level of communication technology and networking that can be completed today using the Mir? Large databases can be stored on the Mir for worldwide Internet gateway access, teleconferencing can be completed, e-mail transmission can be used and, thus, postal organizations can be downsized and the savings used for wireless telecommunications infrastructure.
The Mir needs only minor alterations to install advanced equipment in radio-frequency and UHF transmission communication capabilities. TransGlobalNet.com’s refurbishing reviews have indicated that the useful life of the Mir can be extended by five years with minor upgrades.
The risk exists that the International Space Station may never be completed as the U.S. General Accounting Office continues to question the cost of the shuttle missions-$450 million per launch-and the realization that the shuttle is nothing more than a giant cargo truck. The Rotary Rocket company in Redwood City, Calif., has not proven that it will ever compete with NASA or the RKA.
The idea of a “galactic hotel” with rotary rocket shuttles will cost more than $50 billion and not be completed until 2011. The original design of the International Space Station, like the design of the light bulb, has remained the same. The Mir safety issues were a public relations gambit by journalists eager for a story without any scientific facts on which to base their conclusions.
The Russians have proven time and time again that they are reliable space systems integrators and have an outstanding technical capability that is by far greater than any other industrialized nation. There will be no need to focus on Stanford University research grants, for the Mir is a practical revenue-generating source for the Russian government without any interference from the world’s financial speculators. The Mir would be worldwide and hence not subject to the whims of the Russian “Congress.” All resources would flow electronically and hence immediately into the Russian Treasury. Social tensions would be eliminated, electronic commerce then would become truly global. All ground support activity would be self-supporting without the humiliation of the economic destabilization brought on by the 1999 war between between NATO and Yugoslavia and the International Monetary Fund’s strong efforts to cripple the Russian economy and position Russia as a beggar nation. The transformation of the Russian economy by Vladimir Putin can be an easier process by maintaining the Mir as an operating space station.
Russia is eager to become a self-supporting member of the international community. Mir is a Russian national asset that has not been fully depreciated in value. The refurbishing of the Mir would be an easy task with the cooperation of the U.S. shuttle missions that have proven to be a reliable supply delivery van.
According to Dr. John-David Bartoe, NASA’s research manager for the space station at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, “It’s very important to us that we maintain the momentum of the scientific community’s interest in research. So that’s why we involve them (Russia) in other space projects. For instance, we have done research on board Mir for the past two years, where we have had a continuous presence there.”
Why should Russia’s NASA counterpart, the RKA, accept handouts from the United States when it has the Mir platform to generate international resources by using the Mir as a space platform for the world’s beacon for interactive learning and telemedicine?
Mir’s refurbished command, control and communication center will eliminate the need for satellites such as medium earth orbiting and low earth orbiting. Billions of dollars would be saved from unnecessary space launches. This proposed Mir “technology hub” would provide the earth with knowledge that could be shared by the children of the world, and access would be charged at reasonable or subsidized rates for the poorer nations of the world.
Mir is a space pioneer space station that must not be destroyed.
The International Space Station already has proven that joint efforts have eliminated the Cold War international relationship between the previous superpowers. The Mir has fostered closer ties between Russia and the United States. The International Space Station will not be available until 2006. The clear advantage of the Mir is that it is available now.
As I have previously written, the Mir should be used for personal communications services and Internet applications. Yuri Semyonov has agreed to re-activate the Mir. The launch on March 31, 2000, of the Progress spacecraft has substantiated my vision for the Mir. My Feb. 9, 1999, report to the CTIA Wireless 2000 forum has stood as the key and solitary vision for the Mir’s renewal for the world’s children and for a new era of space and technology cooperation between the two superpowers.
The benefits of this technology initiative are immense.
First, Russia could meet its IMF repayment funding commitments without being sidetracked by the political pressures to “beg for funding” from the American taxpayers. Russia has proven it has the technical competency, and with the funding generated from the commercial development of the Mir, Russia will improve its ability to perform as an equal partner on the International Space Station and other U.S. satellite launch contracts.
Second, Russia could pay back the funds approved by Congress to help NASA meet its International Space Station budget.
Third, Russia could continue to provide a major “reboost” capability to the International Space Station so that the space station’s orbit can be corrected to prevent it from burning up in an earth orbit re-entry.
Fourth, the refurbishing process would generate more than 400,000 jobs in both Russia and California and allow instant access to the financial flow of more than $8 trillion generated by telecommunications in the financial industry alone. Vodafone AirTouch plc, Mannesmann AG and Lloyds TSB recently announced an e-finance initiative in Europe that could take advantage of this new capability for the Mir.
Fifth, quality control of the Mir’s refurbishing would set new ISO standards that would benefit all emerging countries, including India and China.
Sixth, the U.S. support of a project to re-invent the mission of Mir would allow investors to flock eagerly back to the communication sectors of Russia. The Russian economy would be revitalized and the small seed of democracy would begin to gather hold and grow rapidly under Putin. This infrastructure will then strengthen the rule and the enforcement of the law. The project to make the Mir a source of steady and reliable funding for the Russian economy would strengthen Russia’s besieged democracy movement. In addition, the Mir would act as a space-based test bed for new forms of multimedia Internet wireless transmission technologies. This project will be able to “leap-frog” many of the terrestrial wireless networks that require transmission towers and major billion-dollar installation and maintenance projects to install hybrid wire, fiber optic and cable systems that may or may not deliver digital quality Internet to millions of consumers worldwide. A savings of more than $3 trillion dollars that could be used to end the poverty and destruction in the newly independent countries of Africa.
The recent technological brilliance of the first phase of the Russian Zarya and its mission to mate with the Unity capsule, clearly demonstrated that Russia is an exemplary technological nation that has the key to the next phase of the space-based Internet evolution. President Clinton has demonstrated that he understands how technology can eliminate the crippling effects of the “Third Wave” economic infrastructures.
This union of the technology superpowers will provide the world with continued and vast access to the Internet’s transmission and content capabilities for knowledge-based systems, medical diagnostics and interactive learning.
Dan Goldin, the administrator of NASA, said at a congressional hearing that if the White House and Congress cannot fund the International Space Station program adequately, then it should be canceled. Now with the continuation of Mir’s mission for world economic order and balance, hope has been restored for the children, the environment and the peace of mind of all mankind.
The cooperation between NASA and the Russian Mir programs can demonstrate that these two superpowers can continue their cooperation in a peaceful manner. Russian democracy can only grow if the International Space Station and the Mir are kept as parallel projects and as twin research and technology hubs for the good of all mankind.
R. Theodor Kusiolek is president and chief executive officer of TransGlobalNet.com and is a member of Northern California’s Silicon Valley Community as an advocate, entrepreneur, information technology developer and educator. Kusiolek can be reached at (650) 428-1872, kusiolek@ix.netcom.com or www.TransGlobalNet.com.
