As college students, a lot of us live in apart-

ments and residence halls that are less than nir-

vana.

The sinks may drip, the plaster may crack, but

at least if you get a hole in your wall, you won’t

be sucked out into the vacuum of space.

That’s the situation astronauts on board the

Mir space station face every day.

What is NASA doing about it? Sending more

astronauts.

Although Russian officials deny that any of the

problems the aging space station is experiencing

are life-threatening, the reports of power outages

and docking accidents paint a different picture.

Right now the Cold War relic seems to more

like the house in “The Money Pit” than a state-of-

the-art research facility.

The recent power failures aboard Mir are a

warning sign.

The space station should not be used by any-

one, American or Russian, until massive repairs

are made.

That’s what the crew of the Space Shuttle

Atlantis hopes to do on their current mission. In

addition, astronaut David Wolf wants to remain

on board Mir for several months.

It’s hard to know if Wolf is extremely brave or

just foolhardy. He must be aware of the problems

Mir has experienced.

It seems that most astronauts wouldn’t be

eager to move into a space station that’s falling

apart.

If conditions aboard Mir don’t change soon,

America should abandon its repair efforts and the

“astronaut exchange” program before the situa-

tion turns from embarrassment to tragedy.

Sure, it’s been great cooperating with our once-

hostile brothers across the ocean, but how far

does the ship have to sink before we abandon it?

NASA would not have considered sending Wolf

to Mir if Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded

in 1996 instead of 1986.

As time passes, public outcry against such

tragedies diminishes, however, and now it seems

that NASA officials are failing to remember the

mistakes of the past.

Unfortunately, this could mean they’re doomed

to repeat them.

If anything happened to an American on board

Mir, even though it’s not an official NASA project,

the backlash against the space agency would be

greater than the aftermath of the Challenger inci-

dent.

This does not mean that space exploration is

too dangerous to be undertaken. Brave individu-

als have given their lives to get mankind this far.

We shouldn’t stop now.

Neither should we focus on “cost-effective”

space research that could cost lives.

Space research should continue, but aboard a

new station, perhaps one built by a multi-nation-

al task force.

If many nations could come together for the

purpose of science, it could serve as a monument

to human cooperation.

Right now, Mir is only a monument to faulty

wiring.