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ISS Completes 100,000th Orbit of Earth (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: The International Space Station, the space laboratory that showcases cooperation between Russia and the United States, on Monday orbited Earth for the 100,000th time, Russian mission control said. Traveling at an altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers) and a speed of about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour, the space station circles the Earth once every 90 minutes. The ISS has now traveled 2.6 billion miles "or about the distance of 10 round trips to Mars," NASA said on the station's official Twitter feed. From two modules, it has grown to 15 modules, occupying a space the size of a football pitch and represents around $100 billion in investment. "Such a long lifespan of the ISS proves that mankind has the necessary technologies for constant presence in orbit, that we have the potential for further space exploration," said Matyushin.
A short list of things the ISS is doing for humanity in general:
1. The practicalities of human habitation in space, something that cannot be reproduced on earth.
2. Construction techniques on earth and in space
3. All that tech developed that NASA licenses to anyone who asks
4. A detailed look at how gravity influences any number of physical processes both in and out of vacuum
5. Probably the best cover of Space Oddity ever made
6. Showing the world concrete proof that they can accomplish great things if they work together (oh, except for China, but they take it as a challenge of equals instead of a condescending geopolitical stance which is nice at least)
7. An orbital launch platform for commercial microsats
8. A rationale for the commercial space industry to exist in any capacity beyond satellite launches
9. The secure knowledge that someone will be around to witness the end of the world and appreciate it
Outside of the protection of Earth's magnetic fields, everyone on-board would get killed by the radiation.
And you say years at a time. No one has lived in space for 2 years straight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records). The record for the ISS is only 340.4 days (And 437.7 for Mir).
Also, there is the whole energy problem. Ex: just because you go around earth once a day doesn't mean you could get to the moon easily. Getting back would also be much harder since you have to ship the return rockets to mars.
But assuming you solved those problems (which would cost many billions of dollars) yes you could do it, but for the same money we could do so many more useful things hear on earth, or in space with lighter robots.
This XKCD picture explains it all in a very intuitive way: https://xkcd.com/681/
The ISS is on the "low earth orbit" line in the detailed view of the Earth well (on the right).
Using the same analogy, image that you are at the bottom a 100m deep well. It is should be easy for you to walk in circles for 1000m (so horizontally). However, to exit the well you have to GO UP for 100m. That's is a lot more difficult.