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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday March 04 2020, @02:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-goes-up-must-go-down dept.

Expanding, And Eventually Replacing, The International Space Station:

Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), humanity has managed to maintain an uninterrupted foothold in low Earth orbit for just shy of 20 years. There are people reading these words who have had the ISS orbiting overhead for their entire lives, the first generation born into a truly spacefaring civilization.

But as the saying goes, what goes up must eventually come down. The ISS is at too low of an altitude to remain in orbit indefinitely, and core modules of the structure are already operating years beyond their original design lifetimes. As difficult a decision as it might be for the countries involved, in the not too distant future the $150 billion orbiting outpost will have to be abandoned.

Naturally there's some debate as to how far off that day is. NASA officially plans to support the Station until at least 2024, and an extension to 2028 or 2030 is considered very likely. Political tensions have made it difficult to get a similar commitment out of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, but its expected they'll continue crewing and maintaining their segment as long as NASA does the same. Afterwards, it's possible Roscosmos will attempt to salvage some of their modules from the ISS so they can be used on a future station.


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  • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday March 04 2020, @06:20PM

    by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 04 2020, @06:20PM (#966594) Journal

    Our little stepping stone in LEO is at an inconvenient orbital inclination for missions to Europa, Enceladus, and Titan so we certainly won't be launching missions from it. It's also at too low of an orbit for me to be comfortable using it as a biocontainment facility for looking at possible life samples from other worlds.

    It should exist as long as the science it produces justifies its cost. Beyond that, IMHO, it's time for commercial stations to fill the gap.

    If it's unclear why, keep in mind that it's been hanging there continuously occupied for 20 years, astronauts work out for more than an hour a day, and it doesn't have a shower.

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