"vthokie" wrote in message
om...
The current plan to retire the space shuttle around 2010, following
completion of the ISS, seems like it will leave the space station in a
precarious state. Even assuming that we develop the "CEV" for crew
transport functions, how will we make up for the loss of the shuttle's
payload capability and remote manipulator system?

We, the US, won't. Both ESA and Japan are working on vehicles to resupply
ISS. Once the shuttle is retired, any new modules launched will surely be
Russian. Resupply will be handled by Russia, ESA, and Japan. At that
point, I'm guessing the international partners won't much care what the US
does. In fact, if the US stopped sending astronauts to ISS, it would give
ESA and Japan the opportunity to send more of their own people to ISS.

Won't components on
the space station require periodic replacement throughout the
station's operational life?

Surely, but this could be handled by having the shuttle bring up several
spares before it's retired. Also, there are the Russian, ESA, and Japanese
unmanned resupply vehicles. The only issues will be with pieces that need
to go outside ISS and are too big to fit through the hatches on ISS. This
means you'd have to mount such equipment on the outside of the unmanned
resupply vehicle. Not an impossible task, but I'm not sure if any of the
vehicles being currently developed have considered this possibility.

Examples would be the Control Moment
Gyros, and perhaps things like solar arrays.

There should be enough solar arrays to compensate for failures. Worst case,
the Russians can start tacking on more solar arrays like they did with Mir.

Also, how will
experiments be ferried to and from the station. Progress and ATV
vehicles cannot return things back to Earth, and the Soyuz certainly
doesn't have the required payload capability.

Good question.

The CEV doesn't seem
likely to either.

It seems more likely than Soyuz. CEV, after all, is intended to support the
return to moon and Mars, so you've got to have some payload return, even if
it's in a "cargo return" module without people on it. ISS would be a great
place to test such a vehicle in an operational mode before sending it all
the way to the moon.

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.