|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
As I understand it, NASA is planning on "retiring" the ISS at the end
of its nominal planned lifetime of ten years past its completion date of 2010, that is, in 2020. The ISS will be somehow retired and moved off NASA's books. But they are still going to need it around to serve as a shipyard/staging area for expeditions to The Moon or Mars. I suspect something like a private consortium will be encouraged to purchase it, or a "Port Authority" will be formed to manage it. Then, NASA will sign on as something like an anchor tenant, to be able to use it as such a shipyard/staging platform. This has several consequences. For one thing, a quasi private organization will be able to actively go after profit making activities that NASA can't go after - space resort tourists and so on, so that NASA is only paying a couple of hundred million per year as a tenant in this facility, rather than paying the entire one and a half or two billion that it currently is costing them. The assumption is that if the ISS is being run by a private consortium, or a quasi- private "Port Authority", the managing organization will be able to make up the difference in the cost of maintaining the ISS with income generated by its various private income generating activities. This brings up questions about what possible other income generating activities those might be, and what income can be expected to be generated. And what activities are mutually exclusive? Bigelow has announced he will charge 15 million dollars for a 4 week stay for a single tourist, or lease a 300 cubic meter module for 88 million per year. This does not include transportation, or, I'm assuming, spacewalks. If we assume that the ISS might accommodate 6 guests per week, that might translate into 78 tourists per year, for a total income of 1 Billion, 170 million dollars. But those tourists are going to want an orbit that is a high inclination orbit, to go over their home country. A space shipyard for Moon and Mars expeditions will want a much lower orbit, if not strictly equatorial. Other income producing concepts include microgravity research, but that requires a vibration free environment. Including guests and a shipyard on a space station provides excessive amounts of bouncing and vibration, so I don't see those uses as being compatible. Is there a good option for a "free flyer" module to accompany the ISS and be used for research? That essentially requires a separate spacecraft, power supplies and all, to be developed, that can dock with ISS, undock, drift along on its own for a while, and then either be retrieved, or accelerate on its own to dock again with the ISS. What options are out there for money making projects for a privately operated ISS? Harmon |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
Harmon wrote:
: :As I understand it, NASA is planning on "retiring" the ISS at the end f its nominal planned lifetime of ten years past its completion date f 2010, that is, in 2020. The ISS will be somehow retired and moved ff NASA's books. But they are still going to need it around to serve :as a shipyard/staging area for expeditions to The Moon or Mars. : Why? What does ISS provide that would be needed for on-orbit assembly of such expeditions? It's not even in a particularly good orbit for such things, because we had to launch it further north so the Russians could get to it. -- "Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory." --G. Behn |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:07:47 -0800, in a place far, far away, Harmon
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that: As I understand it, NASA is planning on "retiring" the ISS at the end of its nominal planned lifetime of ten years past its completion date of 2010, that is, in 2020. The ISS will be somehow retired and moved off NASA's books. But they are still going to need it around to serve as a shipyard/staging area for expeditions to The Moon or Mars. They claim otherwise. There are no current NASAs plans to use it for such a purpose. What options are out there for money making projects for a privately operated ISS? None, probably, if the operating costs have to be fully accounted for. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
"Harmon" wrote in message
ups.com... As I understand it, NASA is planning on "retiring" the ISS at the end of its nominal planned lifetime of ten years past its completion date of 2010, that is, in 2020. The ISS will be somehow retired and moved off NASA's books. But they are still going to need it around to serve as a shipyard/staging area for expeditions to The Moon or Mars. Why? And as others have pointed out, it's in lousy orbit for that. Bigelow has announced he will charge 15 million dollars for a 4 week stay for a single tourist, or lease a 300 cubic meter module for 88 million per year. This does not include transportation, or, I'm assuming, spacewalks. If we assume that the ISS might accommodate 6 guests per week, that might translate into 78 tourists per year, for a total income of 1 Billion, 170 million dollars. But those tourists are going to want an orbit that is a high inclination orbit, to go over their home country. A space shipyard for Moon and Mars expeditions will want a much lower orbit, if not strictly equatorial. Bigelow is going to provide his own space station for far less cost. Other income producing concepts include microgravity research, but that requires a vibration free environment. Including guests and a shipyard on a space station provides excessive amounts of bouncing and vibration, so I don't see those uses as being compatible. Is there a good option for a "free flyer" module to accompany the ISS and be used for research? That essentially requires a separate spacecraft, power supplies and all, to be developed, that can dock with ISS, undock, drift along on its own for a while, and then either be retrieved, or accelerate on its own to dock again with the ISS. I'd suggest to stop thinking of "the space station" and "a space station". I.e. there will eventually be many, all in different orbits serving different purposes. What options are out there for money making projects for a privately operated ISS? Harmon -- Greg Moore SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available! Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
On Nov 12, 6:07 am, Harmon wrote:
What options are out there for money making projects for a privately operated ISS? Harmon Move ISS to our moon's L1, or possibly to Venus L2. At least according to our crack NASA/Apollo wizards, our moon isn't the least bit physically dark and IR reflective, nor is it hardly anticathode reactive, even though it's so extra naked and having such an unusually high density worth of cosmic and local solar debris of heavy metallic worthy substances on deck (including more than its fair share of various sodium/salts and those pesky radioactive elements). -- Brad Guth |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
In article . com,
Harmon wrote: As I understand it, NASA is planning on "retiring" the ISS at the end of its nominal planned lifetime of ten years past its completion date of 2010, that is, in 2020. The ISS will be somehow retired and moved off NASA's books. But they are still going to need it around to serve as a shipyard/staging area for expeditions to The Moon or Mars. Why? By 2020, it's quite likely that there will be a number of commercial space stations, certainly newer and possibly better equipped (and positioned) than ISS. I see the benefit of an orbital staging base, but why assume it has to be ISS? I suspect something like a private consortium will be encouraged to purchase it, or a "Port Authority" will be formed to manage it. Then, NASA will sign on as something like an anchor tenant, to be able to use it as such a shipyard/staging platform. Well, that'd be good to the extent that ISS remains safe and useful. What options are out there for money making projects for a privately operated ISS? You've certainly covered some, though I think it's going to be hard for ISS to compete as a tourist destination with stations built for that purpose. Another idea that comes to mind is filmmaking (i.e. orbital movie studios) -- zero-G is one of those things that even modern special effects can't well depict except in very limited ways. Another might be a material depot -- fuel, water, food, whatever, on its way from wherever it comes from to wherever the end-customers are. HTH, - Joe -- "Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work. Learn more and discuss via: http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/ |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:22:13 -0700, Fred J. McCall wrote: What does ISS provide that would be needed for on-orbit assembly of such expeditions? It's not even in a particularly good orbit for such things, because we had to launch it further north so the Russians could get to it. .....which, in hindsight, was probably a very good idea. -- |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:43:53 +0000, in a place far, far away, Mike
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that: On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:22:13 -0700, Fred J. McCall wrote: What does ISS provide that would be needed for on-orbit assembly of such expeditions? It's not even in a particularly good orbit for such things, because we had to launch it further north so the Russians could get to it. ....which, in hindsight, was probably a very good idea. Only if one thinks that continuing the space station program was intrinsically a good idea. From a functionality standpoint, it was a disaster. For an investment of (my estimate) less than half a billion, the Russians could get to it at 28.5 degrees from Kourou. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
On Nov 12, 2:00 pm, Joe Strout wrote:
In article . com, Harmon wrote: As I understand it, NASA is planning on "retiring" the ISS at the end of its nominal planned lifetime of ten years past its completion date of 2010, that is, in 2020. The ISS will be somehow retired and moved off NASA's books. But they are still going to need it around to serve as a shipyard/staging area for expeditions to The Moon or Mars. Why? By 2020, it's quite likely that there will be a number of commercial space stations, certainly newer and possibly better equipped (and positioned) than ISS. I see the benefit of an orbital staging base, but why assume it has to be ISS? I suspect something like a private consortium will be encouraged to purchase it, or a "Port Authority" will be formed to manage it. Then, NASA will sign on as something like an anchor tenant, to be able to use it as such a shipyard/staging platform. Well, that'd be good to the extent that ISS remains safe and useful. What options are out there for money making projects for a privately operated ISS? You've certainly covered some, though I think it's going to be hard for ISS to compete as a tourist destination with stations built for that purpose. Another idea that comes to mind is filmmaking (i.e. orbital movie studios) -- zero-G is one of those things that even modern special effects can't well depict except in very limited ways. Another might be a material depot -- fuel, water, food, whatever, on its way from wherever it comes from to wherever the end-customers are. You folks ovbiously haven't seen film from those Apollo missions and especially of their unfiltered EVA films and video that looked as though quite terrestrial. Even though their using roughly twice the frames/s, whereas stuff fell to that guano island's passive deck at roughly 9.8 m/s, whereas it still Looks almost real enough to the dumbfounded eye, doesn't it. -- Brad Guth |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
ISS after completion
Mike wrote:
: :On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:22:13 -0700, Fred J. McCall wrote: : :What does ISS provide that would be needed for on-orbit assembly :of such expeditions? It's not even in a particularly good orbit for :such things, because we had to launch it further north so the Russians :could get to it. : :....which, in hindsight, was probably a very good idea. : Not so much. What's needed is for NASA to get out of the mindset of grounding for multiple years every time something goes wrong. -- "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Dryden |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
completion along turnover | Edith U. Imperatore | Amateur Astronomy | 0 | August 14th 07 10:55 PM |
New observatory nearing completion! | Barry | Amateur Astronomy | 4 | February 18th 07 01:06 PM |
Completion of the cupola observation module | Jens Roser | Space Station | 7 | September 5th 04 12:21 AM |
Completion of the cupola observation module | Jacques van Oene | Space Station | 0 | August 30th 04 09:07 PM |
Some observatory completion questions | Marc Zukoff | Amateur Astronomy | 1 | November 23rd 03 01:07 PM |