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Russia May Be Planning National Space Station To Replace ISS
An anonymous reader writes with news that Russia may be building its own space station to replace the ISS. Russia may be planning to build a new, independent national space station rather than prolong its participation in the $150 billion International Space Station (ISS) program beyond its current 2020 end date. The U.S. space agency NASA proposed last year to extend the life of the ISS — the largest international project ever undertaken by nations during peacetime — beyond its currently scheduled 2020 end date to at least 2024.
We'll build our own station... with blackjack and hookers!
In fact, forget the station.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Peace time! The countries have been involved in almost constant war the entire ISS programs existence.
I am totally pro-space, but I just do not understand the ISS. It is hugely expensive to keep and feed crews. And yet, the human habitation makes whole classes of experiments difficult or impossible, due to the atmosphere, the vibrations from movement, etc..
Where human presence could be useful: if we were actually building a space infrastructure. Capture some asteroids, use them for raw material, and build a base to use to get to the rest of the solar system. While lots of construction tasks can be automated, human intervention will occasionally be necessary. But we aren't doing that.
So, what exactly is the point of manned space stations? Is it really worth it? Or would the money, time and effort be better invested in some other types of space activity - automated experimental stations, or - let's dream - building a "real" base in space?
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Can't they plan something permanent, where you add and remove modules as needed ? Barely 2 decades of use for such an expensive project seems kind of a waste.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Russia announced that they were planning to end their involvement with the ISS in 2009 or so. This is nothing new. They've been telegraphing their displeasure with the ISS program for half a decade or more, and their lack of willingness to continue with it past 2020. The portions they're sending up to the ISS will be detached and converted in to a separate space station shortly after 2020. This is not "news", this is "established fact". Maybe it's more noteworthy the second time that they publish this through official channels?
The ISS will be a 20 year old international experiment at that point, yes the US and Russian halves of the ISS share a common "atmosphere" but mechanically they're completely separate space stations capable of detaching at any time. Most of the Russian segment of the ISS is made from leftovers from their MIR 2 project. It's no surprise that they're wanting to separate from the ISS. Those space station modules have a finite lifespan and most of them will be nearing their operational limits around 2020, with a maximum lifespan of 2030. Either we replace them with new modules or deorbit the whole thing. Russia has decided to replace them with new modules and go their own separate way. They've been talking about this for a looong time. The ESA has been talking about teaming up with the Russians moving forward, rather than NASA on the next space station. China ended up building their own space station after being turned down by the Americans. We're not making a whole lot of friends in the aerospace field with the ISS these days. The New ISS may be everyone - (minus) America next time around, due to our overwhelming fear of sharing orbital technology with the Chinese (who aren't allowed inside NASA buildings, just ask any Chinese aerospace engineer).
moox. for a new generation.
What would happen if the Russians just decided to keep the International Space Station going unilaterally? Is there anything critical to the operation of the ISS that only the US can provide?
Or is the ISS getting so old - seals are starting to leak, parts are getting brittle with age and the harsh environment of space - that it's safer to ditch it than to continue to use it?
All in all, it seems like quite a waste to splash a hundred and fifty billion dollar microgravity research station, especially when they're planning on adding new modules to it next year, and in 2017.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Agreed, the real value in sticking people into a tin can in orbit is to study THEM, not the tin can. We need to understand the long term affects of low gravity, diet, mental health etc. etc. before we commit to sending them on one way missions to other planets. Lets face it, the first couple of missions to Mars are probably going to be one way. I for one would like to know how to mitigate 'space scurvy' before taking the plunge.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
We should build a moon base. It will be the first of its kind...Alpha. Something we should have completed 15 years ago, instead of wasting money on ISS.
The irony of your statement, is that the whole reason Russia is planning on going their own way, is because the US does not plan to renew the station come 2020, but rather deorbit it (the US have been saying so since 2009 at least). As some of the Russian modules are going up in 2017, they would be barely 3 years old when the US wants to burn it all up. And these modules are not cheap to build or send up there. Additionally, the Chinese had to build their own space station precisely because the US did not want them on the ISS. Russians had no problem with their participation. So from Russias point of view, come 2020, detaching their modules, letting the US burn up its part of the ISS, and then forming a new station seems like a smart decision. Those modules would have 20 more years left in them at least. Plus, with the US no longer involved, they can invite the Chinese and the Europeans to join them if they so desire, for an ISS2. So in many ways what you wrote was perfectly correct, just replace "Russia" with "USA" to get to reality :-) .
Russians are "planning" a lot of things. One of the features of mindset of Russian society is permanent talk about ever greater and more impressive projects. None of those normally come true, but they make Russian people feel as if they would be the Greatest Nation of All. So Russians spend their lives in illusionary dreamscape where unfounded paranoid sense of one's greatness and superiority co-exists with the feeblest and most pathetic of realities ever seen by Man which in fact they are living in.
A common trick of Russian propaganda is comparing Russian _planned_ endeavours with the _actual_ accomplishments of the others. While absolutely absurd as it is, the trick makes Russians feel good about themselves, as noted above. The obvious difference between plans and facts seems eluding majority of Russian population.
Lets face it, the first couple of missions to Mars are probably going to be one way. I for one would like to know how to mitigate 'space scurvy' before taking the plunge.
No trip to Mars is going to be one way. We could probably send a one way trip if we really wanted to, but we will never do it. We will want a good chance of success and by time we do go through the trouble of figuring out the issues like "space scurvy", long term deep space habitats, and making sure that the trip actually has a desired chance of success to justify even making a trip to Mars, the return trip will be trivial.
The ISS is not a deep space craft. It and the crew is still protected by the Van Allen belt from radiation, and is not mean to handle the thrust of moving it. The boosting just to keep it in orbit is already taking a toll on the structure and it is very much still in the grip of Earth's gravity and probably could not handle the thrust needed to get it out into deep space. A ion thruster would not do will still in orbit. As far as a car analogy goes, what you are suggesting is like saying somebody should use a short ranged electric car meant for short city trips to do multi ton interstate shipping.
If the solar cells dont optimize the solar incidence angle, the power could be cut in third. Power is kind of tight on ISS now, In the mid-2000s a shuttle mission replaced a broken bearing wheel on half of the solar cells. It would be much slower to replace such now without the shuttle.