Any news on MPLMs ?

According to the unofficial manifest, it appears that the last MPLM
flight to the station will happen later this year.

Any news/stories/plans to sufficently upgrade one MPLM to stay in space
permanently (even if not qualified as "living quarters", it would still
be very useful to store cargo) ?

Couldn't they leave one up, and then add blankets to its outside like
they did for Zvezda ?

If inside systems fail, they can send replacements via progress/ATV
since it wouldn't be big stuff (just fans, heaters, comms, sensors).

If they keep the hatch closed when not being used, would such an MPLM
still represent some risk to the station ?

John Doe writes:

According to the unofficial manifest, it appears that the last MPLM
flight to the station will happen later this year.

Any news/stories/plans to sufficently upgrade one MPLM to stay in space
permanently (even if not qualified as "living quarters", it would still
be very useful to store cargo) ?

For what it's worth, that CR has been canceled. I don't know
exactly why, but I'm sure that cost had something to do with
it--as always.

--
J. Porter Clark

On Mon, 05 May 2008 08:22:42 -0400, John Doe wrote:

According to the unofficial manifest, it appears that the last MPLM
flight to the station will happen later this year.

No. STS-126 (Nov 08), STS-128 (Jul 09) and STS-130 (Oct 09) are all
MPLM flights.

Brian