JF Mezei wrote:

On 2016-08-23 21:11, Greg (Strider) Moore wrote:

What benefit does SpaceX or Bigelow get from docking to the current ISS?
They're far better off launching to their own station, in a better orbit,
with newer equipment.

Think IP. SpaceX gets rights to CBM specs/designs, the ECLSS
technologies that have been developped and debugged, debris shelding,
toilet etc. All this happens to be very valuable if you intend to goto
Mars (or hopefully gosub Mars).


Buying a car doesn't give you access to or rights to the IP in the
car. If it's about IP, you buy the IP, not the car. In addition,
since ISS is NASA the IP is already public. Most of the IP isn't what
you want for a Mars trip anyway.


And if SpaceX gets to commercially operate the US facilities, then it
gets to control the CBM and docking ports, giving itself priorioty for
shipments of cargo and humans. So if any nation wnats to send
astronauts/experiments to the US segment, they would have to deal with
SpaceX, Orbital would likely lose much business. (And Boeing).


They get that by putting up their own station, too, only better. ISS
is in a horrible orbital plane. This was done deliberately so that
Russian launchers can reach it. SpaceX would want a station (if they
want a station) in a much lower inclination orbit.


Remember that SpaceX would likely have to cater to its customers, the
other non-USA member of the ISS who will still want to make use of the
facility. So SpaceX runs the "hotel" and transportation services to
allow nations to do experiements in their modules or on a SPaceX module
such as Destiny.


Which brings us back to the question of why? What advantage does
SpaceX get out of this? I don't see one.


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn