After 20 Years in Orbit, ISS Is Approaching Retirement.

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After 20 Years in Orbit, ISS Is Approaching Retirement. Here's What
Might Replace It

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SUSIE NEILSON, BUSINESS INSIDER
3 NOVEMBER 2020
On Monday, the world celebrated 20 years of continuous human presence in
space. Astronauts and cosmonauts have lived aboard the International
Space Station without a break since 2 November 2000.


Over those 7,300 days, the US$150 billion orbiting laboratory has hosted
241 people from 19 countries, and more than 3,000 scientific experiments
have been conducted there.

Still, all good things must come to an end. NASA has cleared ISS to fly
until at least 2028, but the station is starting to show its age. At
some point in the next 10 to 15 years, it's likely that NASA will
deorbit the station, crashing it into the southern Pacific Ocean.

But other habitable stations are expected to take its place - most of
them designed and built by private companies.

Some of these companies, like Axiom Space and Bigelow Aerospace, hope to
build on the ISS's success by adding extensions to the station that
could eventually be removed to orbit as their own habitats.

Others, like Blue Origin, want to build brand-new space accommodations
so large and sophisticated that they could start to resemble life on Earth.

The ISS is getting old
The station has already outlived its life expectancy of 15 years. In the
last few months alone, the station's Russian side has seen a toilet go
bust, an oxygen-supply system break down, and an air leak grow larger.

"All modules of the Russian segment are exhausted," Gennady Padalka, a
cosmonaut, told RIA Novosti in October.

iss diagram russian and american
A diagram of the International Space Station, including the Zvezda
Service Module. (NASA)

These issues aren't enough to compromise the station's integrity for
now, but are warning signs of deterioration.

"I think it's an incredibly reliable and a robust system," Kate Rubins,
a NASA astronaut currently on the ISS, said during a press call last month.

But the prospect of the space station's looming retirement already has
private companies competing to develop worthy successors.


Some companies will start by building attachments to the ISS
Axiom Space, a private aerospace company based in Houston, Texas, aims
to build the first commercial space station. Founded in 2016, Axiom has
already received a contract from NASA to build at least one new livable
commercial module to add to the existing space station.

Then once the ISS retires, that module, along with any others that Axiom
has added in the intervening years, would theoretically detach to become
an independent orbital outpost.

axiom earth observatory module iss
Artist's rendering of Axiom's Earth Observatory, a section within its
planned ISS module. (Axiom Space)

Another company with similar aspirations is Bigelow Aerospace, which was
founded by real estate billionaire Robert Bigelow in 1999. The business
has already sent a working prototype of its inflatable ISS module to
space - the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, has been
attached to the station since 2016. It's currently used for storage.

But Bigelow is designing a new version of the habitat at its facilities
in Las Vegas, Nevada, that is far bigger and more ambitious than the
first. The latest model, called the B330, has 11,650 cubic feet of
internal volume (330 cubic meters), hence its name. That's roughly the
size of an 1,165-square-foot apartment with 10-foot ceilings.


"Equipped with two galleys, two toilets, enormous cargo space, and two
dissimilar propulsion systems, this is the ideal habitat for a
long-duration space mission," Bigelow said in a statement in September 2019.

"This large space station can accommodate four people indefinitely and
five people for many months."

Eventually, Bigelow hopes some version of the B330 could house
astronauts journeying to Mars.

Yet another company, the Sierra Nevada Corporation, is working on a
prototype of a three-story inflatable space habitat. Its design would
enable it to either attach to the space station or serve as a lunar base.

Known as the Large Inflatable Fabric Environment, or LIFE, the facility
might even feature a microgravity garden that could supply space
travellers with fresh produce.

inflatable space habitat
(Sierra Nevada Corporation)

Sierra Nevada's senior vice president, Janet Kavandi, is also a retired
NASA astronaut. She told Business Insider the inflatable habitat could
serve multiple purposes in space, including as "a manufacturing
facility, a hotel, which some people might be interested in, or an
observatory."

The eventual goal, she added, is "replacing the existing space station
with a new capability."


Blue Origin envisions 'fundamentally different' space habitats
While corporations like Bigelow and Axiom are using the ISS as a
starting point for space habitats that could eventually become
independent stations, others, like Blue Origin, are already working on
standalone orbital habitats.

That company, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, envisions habitats
far roomier and more luxurious than the ISS.

A job posting from Blue Origin in September suggested that even its
early stations would be "fundamentally different from 'exploration'
habitats designed for small, professionally trained crews in deep space."

blue origin medieval town in space
Artist's concept of an O'Neill space colony simulating Earth conditions
in space. (Blue Origin)

In the long term, Bezos envisions massive habitats across the solar
system that could house a space-based economy of millions of workers,
allowing heavy industry to move off our planet. The environments inside
these habitats would simulate Earth's gravity and most ideal weather.

"This is Maui on its best day, all year long," Bezos said in May 2019,
according to The Guardian. "No rain. No earthquakes. People are going to
want to live here."

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

a425couple wrote on 08/11/20 08:55:
from
https://www.sciencealert.com/after-2...ght-replace-it


Snip

Blue Origin envisions 'fundamentally different' space habitats
While corporations like Bigelow and Axiom are using the ISS as a
starting point for space habitats that could eventually become
independent stations, others, like Blue Origin, are already working on
standalone orbital habitats.

That company, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, envisions habitats
far roomier and more luxurious than the ISS.

A job posting from Blue Origin in September suggested that even its
early stations would be "fundamentally different from 'exploration'
habitats designed for small, professionally trained crews in deep space."

blue origin medieval town in space
Artist's concept of an O'Neill space colony simulating Earth conditions
in space. (Blue Origin)

In the long term, Bezos envisions massive habitats across the solar
system that could house a space-based economy of millions of workers,
allowing heavy industry to move off our planet. The environments inside
these habitats would simulate Earth's gravity and most ideal weather.

"This is Maui on its best day, all year long," Bezos said in May 2019,
according to The Guardian. "No rain. No earthquakes. People are going to
want to live here."

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

The artist's impression of the 'Blue Origin' design reminds me of Arthur
C Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" spaceship!!
--
Daniel

In article ,
Daniel65 wrote:

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

The artist's impression of the 'Blue Origin' design reminds me of Arthur
C Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" spaceship!!

NASA is research organisation for how to do technology in air and
space wrong and right. They then give it away free and let the
marketplace decide what to do with it.

The other part of NASA is doing science of the atmosphere and
space.

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