60-Second Symposium

By Harriet Barovick, Michelle Derrow, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, David Spitz, Flora Tartakovsky and Chris Taylor

It's old and there's no funding, so the Russian Space Agency can't keep space station Mir aloft. We asked those versed in the ways of space, "What would you do with Mir?"

"I would turn the Mir space station into a prison in which we would place criminals who are convicted of crimes against humanity. Their sentence is not only isolation in space, but they would be forced to look down on earth to see how interdependent humans are on each other." --William Shatner, actor, Star Trek

"We probably would not do anything with the Mir. It does not fit the mission profile for tourists in space. Our mission plan is to provide the tourist with an artificial-gravity environment by spinning the facility. If you do that on the Mir, it falls apart. --Gregory Bennett, V.P., Bigelow Aerospace, a firm developing space cruises and hotels

"The Mir has far exceeded expectations in 13 years. It should be let go to rest peacefully. More efforts should be devoted to international space stations...The thing is bound to wear out, and that could be catastrophic if it was manned." --Pete Conrad, astronaut and CEO of Universal Space Lines, a start-up space airline