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Jul 13, 2009 03:25 PM | 19
The International Space Station has been a colossal undertaking among five space agencies whose final price tag will likely be in the vicinity of $100 billion dollars. (The U.S. construction costs alone are estimated to be $31 billion.) Just this year the station finally reached its full capacity of six crew members, but it is still under construction—space shuttle Endeavour sits at the ready today to deliver to the ISS pieces of a Japanese experiment module.
But the ISS program manager for NASA is warning that without a change in policy, all that work will go plunging into the ocean in 2016, just six years after the scheduled completion of the station. "In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and deorbit the spacecraft," Michael Suffredini told the Washington Post. The ISS's long-term funding from NASA terminates in 2015, the newspaper notes.
Suffredini's public comments may be intended to simply raise the alarm, and indeed, he makes no bones about his position on the issue. "My opinion is it would be a travesty to deorbit this thing," he told the Post. "If we get rid of this darned thing in 2015, we're going to cede our leadership in human exploration." He also says that NASA is looking at what would be needed to keep the station going deep into the 2020s.
So what will the inevitable deorbiting look like, whether or not it comes in 2016? According to a 2000 report by the National Research Council, 80 percent of the debris generated as the station breaks apart will burn up before reaching Earth. The rest will be scattered across a vast ellipse as great as 300 kilometers by 5,370 kilometers, a debris field nearly as large as the land area of Alaska. The eastern Pacific Ocean, the report surmises, provides the least dangerous destination for that debris.
Artist's rendition of a completed ISS: NASA
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19 Comments
Add CommentThe ISS is totally useless anyway. The sooner it's gone, the better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn these enlightened times, Americans see no value in anything that does not immediately line their pockets or reinforce their view that they themselves are at the center of the universe. So long, ISS.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Hubble is still helping researchers turn out papers left and right, and it has been running for 19 years (with 4 to 12 left to go).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt least the experience, technologies, and manufacturing infrastructure created for the ISS will live on, even if the station itself does not.
we're going to cede our leadership in human exploration. Seams appropriate. If it werent for the USs military objectives and deep pockets the US would still be driving Conestogas across the west. The rest of the world is shaking their collective heads at a country with so much wealth yet is not only astonishingly scientifically illiterate but down-right hostile to science and critical thought. While the rest of the world moves towards free, secular societies the US sinks into a fascistic theocracy. Comments like alphachapmtls are sadly representative of a complete disconnect of the general population of the US, who are the number one beneficiaries of the best that technology has to offer, and the source of that technology, BOTH the theoretical and applied sciences. Hotblack had it right; unless the man in the street sees the results in his wallet it has no meaning to him. Yet, they have no problem sinking billions into killing Iraqi civilians to ensure a steady supply of oil and another base in the Middle East in the event that the Saudis fall to the fundamentalists.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI shouldnt be disappointed though. Americas loss is the rest of the world's gain. Particle physics gladly moved to France/Switzerland when funding for the Texas collider disappeared. Research into humanoid robotics is done primarily in Japan because the radical Christians think making a machine in our likeness is sacrilege. Stem Cell research has similarly found other places to thrive.
It will be interesting to see if Obama is able to stem the tide of the coming dark-age or if the Christian right succeeds in turning the US into a third world kingdom. Sadly, Christian fanatics with Nukes vs. Islamic fanatics with Nukes does not bode well for the world.
To put the 31 billion invested in the space station please consider this;
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith enactment of the FY2008 Supplemental/FY2009 Bridge Fund on
June 30, 2008, Congress has approved a total of about $864 billion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Congress is currently considering the FY2009 Spring Supplemental which includes war funds to cover the rest of the current fiscal year.
From: The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11
May 15, 2009
Amy Belasco
Specialist in U.S. Defense Policy and Budget
One is an investment in knowledge, the other was the cost of destroying people and property along with the subsequent costs of rebuilding.
alphachapmtl at 06:08 PM on 07/13/09
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe ISS is totally useless anyway. The sooner it's gone, the better.
Yeah, sounds like an enlightened reply there alfalfachamp. Care to elaborate as to why it's "useless"?
alphachapmtl at 06:08 PM on 07/13/09
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe ISS is totally useless anyway. The sooner it's gone, the better.
Yeah, sounds like an enlightened reply there alfalfachump. Care to elaborate as to why it's "useless"?
somehow i doubt the rest of the world is ready to dump this thing into the ocean.. ok we are going to lose the shuttles. but there are and will be many other ways to resupply the iss and maintain its orbit... so what do you suggest just back out and let the russians have it? highly unlikely..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishere is a scenario for you. its 2015, everyone has decided it time to pull the plug on the iss. you gather your happy crew, jump into your return ships(as there is no shuttle you need two) you undock start your reentry burn when you notice that shenzou craft thats been in orbit the last few days accelerating and docking at the iss.... the lights come back on, and you get a message thanks for the house guys.. oh and by the way we are armed dont come back
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are certainly correct although with one exception. Can you be certain that without the wasted military spending that the earth would have a free society to ponder these very things? Yes, military spending is a shame and a waste, but its cause belongs to the world, not the U.S. alone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe NASA could sell their share of the thing to the highest bidder. Then become a tenant. I suspect, if the station is truly worth anything, that is what will happen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf NASA doesn't start soon to explain the use and PURPOSE of the ISS and create a sense of value for our investment--then it's already debris!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about an article about what they're *doing* up there? More than docking and building. How does their activities relate to life on the ground? What are they doing there that just can't be done here?
Other than, of course, providing a great vacation for six months on orbit for a very lucky few.
Please have the last one out--turn off the lights.
Here is a thought...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy doesn't NASA turn the ISS into the precursor of a space dock? Instead of retiring the shuttles launch them all to the ISS and dock them to it as a holding platform for possible retrofitting for future missions. Just because they use Liquid/Hydrogen fuel doesnt mean some other form of propulsion couldn't be retrofitted as engines in the future to them. Useing the atlas or existing solid fuel boosters(wingless shuttle concept/cargo ship) and tank the possibility of bringing more fuel into space, the ISS could be a fuel storage facility for SOL SYSTEM exploration. Maybe this sounds like a dream, but it is an idea. All this equipment in space things to build from and all we do is burn it up in the atmosphere and crash it in the ocean. Why recycle on Earth, why dont we recycle in space also?
When the ISS doescomplete it's Earth orbit mission there is a case for
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisparking it in a Mar's orbit. When manned Mars exploration opens up in,
say 20 years time, the ISS would be available as a support, survaillance, communications, warehousing, & rescue base for multiple mars surface
expeditions.
There are benefits in having a base nearer to hand than planet Earth
Excellent Idea, or even build another ISS around Mars, Use the Shuttles to Ferry components to and from each space station using the Earth ISS as a fueling station. Even the possibility of creating a landing runway on the moon for the shuttles to land would even be an interesting concept. NASA would have 3 useable vehicles to land and take off from the Space Stations and the moon. Recycle and Retrofit that is a future space concept. Maybe some sorta Meglev propulsion track could be fitted to a shuttle to launch from the moon. All concept ideas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisidea;
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe the nuclear landmines ( or depth charges) were
probably about the smallest sized devices in physical size & nuclear yield ,
The flight time between Earth & Mars I believe is estimated at many months.
Might be possible to make nuclear devices even smaller than above.
The 'Aurora' spy plane if it exists, is supposed to employ a 'pulse
detonation' engine. I suggest nuclear driven propulsion by a series of very
small nuclear detonations. I don't know what the effect of a massive &
instantaneous acceleration would be. Away from the Earth's gravity would
there be any 'g' force whatsoever. Would no effect be felt on the craft's
structure or it's occupants. The approach to Mars would involve the craft
turning tail & emitting a similar series of decelerating detonations. the final
stage would involve the 'fine tuning' of a conventional rocket engine.
Similarily conventional rocket power is required to get the craft well clear of
Earth.
I readily admit to being technically naive.
Radiation is the major issue. Shielding nacessary to a detonating nuclear engine's nozzle as part of the craft is prohibitive in weight terms. How
effective is it to have this engine at a considerable distance from the craft.
This is my naive bit. Is it the case that away from the influences of either
planet, if engine & craft were linked by, as fragile in itself, as a 50 mile piece of 'string', the 'push'of engine would be acting as one upon craft, without any deformation in the intervening 'string'? In deeper space do bodies act
as one, as long as they are phyisically connected, no matter what the
strength of any part thereof?
Is that how things can work in space?
If it is feasible, this might also serv fore very deep space exploration ( i.e.
the nearest planets). Conventional rocket power is not really feasible, and
ion engines and the like have too small a thrust for very long distance
travel.
Would it be worth constructing an unmanned tecnology demonstrator?
A craft travelling at such a speed as to return exploration results within a
reasonable time scale.
The nuclear detonation engine would take the form of a 'cassete' of
a number of very small nuclear devices injected into the nozzle.
Arrant nonsense probably. Would any physicist like to confirm whether
my engine/'string'/craft would indeed behave as one?
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