NASA: ISS to be "de-orbited" in 2016

[Killjoy]

`
6 friggin' years ?!?!?

Damn !

Didn't Crazy Ivan get something like 15 out of their hunk of junk ?

The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the ground when night has fallen but the station, up high, is still bathed in sunlight.

After more than a decade of construction, it is nearing completion and finally has a full crew of six astronauts. The last components should be installed by the end of next year.

And then?

"In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft," says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini.

That's a polite way of saying that NASA will make the space station fall back into the atmosphere, where it will turn into a fireball and then crash into the Pacific Ocean. It'll be a controlled reentry, to ensure that it doesn't take out a major city. But it'll be destroyed as surely as a Lego palace obliterated by the sweeping arm of a suddenly bored kid.

This, at least, is NASA's plan, pending a change in policy. There's no long-term funding on the books for international space station operations beyond 2015.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/12/AR2009071201977.html?hpid=topnews

[Challenger78]

`
6 friggin' years ?!?!?

Damn !

Didn't Crazy Ivan get something like 15 out of their hunk of junk ?

What seems to be the problem ? Funding ?

Come on. WTF? Mir was up there for ages. And crashed somewhere near Australia..

[phlogistician]

Russia are already talking about separating and re-using parts of the ISS, seeing this as a total waste. I agree there, it's not even finished, and they want to junk it?

[Asguard]

phlogistician maybe they should just buy the lot from the yanks. Sure the other countries involved would be happy to see there money still up there rather than wasted

[phlogistician]

phlogistician maybe they should just buy the lot from the yanks. Sure the other countries involved would be happy to see there money still up there rather than wasted

Maybe the USA should just remove any sensitive equipment, and hand over the keys, for free. De-orbiting perfectly good spacecraft, or wanting money for something it can't use is not really in the spirit of international co-operation.

[cosmictraveler]

There are onboard thrusters that can keep the ISS in orbit for years. I'm certain there will be other countries who can put it to use if those in charge do not want to continue funding it. Seems stupid to me to just get done building someting then destroy it, but that's the way the government seems to be thinking. :shrug:

[Killjoy]

What seems to be the problem ? Funding ?

Come on. WTF? Mir was up there for ages. And crashed somewhere near Australia..
Lack of funding, and the perception that with the demise of the shuttle fleet, the ISS will be irrelevant, since - to it's critics - the ISS was built mainly "to give the shuttle somewhere to go."

Recall that the US is now apparently intent on returning to the moon for some idiotic reason. I guess designing & building the means to do so is where the money is going to go.

Personally, I think they could fund the ISS by taking space tourists up to the thing.

Hell - they could add a "motel module" & probably keep the thing booked solid with rich sumbitches looking for the "ultimate thrill".

I'd go if I had the money.

heh.

[Asguard]

i LOVE how its the US who have made the desision to abandon and crash the ISS. Do the yanks think they are the world (like there stupid naming of the "world seris" which only involves yanks) or have they just forgoten what the "I" stands for?

[Killjoy]

i LOVE how its the US who have made the desision to abandon and crash the ISS. Do the yanks think they are the world (like there stupid naming of the "world seris" which only involves yanks) or have they just forgoten what the "I" stands for?
Blah, Blah, Blah...


Incidentally - List of current Major League Baseball players by nationality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Major_League_Baseball_players_by_n ationality)

[Michael]

That's sad :(

I am 100% sure that China, Japan, Russia, Europeans would be happy to use it.

[phlogistician]

Personally, I think they could fund the ISS by taking space tourists up to the thing.

Hell - they could add a "motel module" & probably keep the thing booked solid with rich sumbitches looking for the "ultimate thrill".



There was a design for such, wasn't there? It was inflatable iirc.

Here we go;

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/09274top.xml

Now, like the article says, inflatables offer lots or space at minimum weight, and would be quite useful for long stay missions on Mars. Of course, it might be good to have tested one for a while, say, attached to the ISS?

Moon missions are a waste of time, unless we intend parking a telescope up there, and we can get a robot to land that.

We would be better off completing and improving the ISS, so a Mars mission could be assembled up there from mutliple launches, and depart from the ISS.

I also recon we need to try and make a rotating space station, a la 2001, to test arificial gravity, as that would be a real bonus on long missions. We need to test this stuff close to Earth, and need to learn to walk before we run.

[D H]

"In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft," says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/12/AR2009071201977.html?hpid=topnews
Nice job, Washington Post. :rolleyes:

Note well, Killjoy: I am not blaming you getting caught by this superb piece of yellow journalism. I was sucked in by the same yellow journalistic crap and posted this as an example of a NASA boneheaded move a week ago. (http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2310212)

So what's really going on? The article is yellow journalism, pure and simple. This is a quote out of context of testimony by Suffredini to the Augustine committee.

There are three important pieces of context missing. First, because the ISS is so large, US and international law requires that plans must exist to deliberately de-orbited the ISS. Skylab didn't have a planned reentry. Pieces of Skylab rained down on western Australia, fortunately with no loss of life. (The $400 littering fine against the US was finally paid in April 2009, but by private US citizens.) Since Skylab, large satellites have been intentionally de-orbited. Mir ended its life with a planned destructive reentry, for example.

Secondly, to comply with these domestic and international laws, this planned de-orbit in 2016 is what NASA and its international partners planned from the very start for the end of the ISS, and those plans have not officially changed yet. The agreements, essentially treaties, with Russia, the European space agency, Japan, and Canada expire in 2015. These agreements require NASA to de-orbit the ISS shortly after the agreements expire. NASA is currently working with its international partners and with the State Department to extend those agreements.

Thirdly, the article omits Suffredini's follow-up comments. He reported that ongoing discussions with the international partners indicate all want to see the ISS extended beyond 2016. He also gave his own thoughts regarding the current plan: "My opinion is it would be a travesty to de-orbit this thing."

[Killjoy]

`
Son of a bitch...

I read about it in the local newspaper, which used the Washington Post article as the lead story for its Science Page using the title 'Headed for a Fall?'

:rolleyes:

[draqon]

I heard Roskosmos is planning to use the ISS at least until 2020 year. I know it is possible, the funding is what the issue is. If we could find a way to bring large amounts of tourists to ISS for a much smaller price per launch than currently that would be a day to come.

[The Esotericist]

There is so much of the story that is left out of this article the society isn't even aware of. The reason they don't see a need for this, is there are TWO space programs, the civilian one, and the secret military one. This one is utterly redundant, and serves absolutely no purpose when you know what technology we really possess and what achievements we have really made in space. If the government were truly honest about that, people would be outraged that we even built the damn thing to begin with.

[draqon]

Esotericist your's governmental conspiracies are pathetic, at best.

[Gustav]

hush, you govt stooge, you

[nietzschefan]

I heard Roskosmos is planning to use the ISS at least until 2020 year. I know it is possible, the funding is what the issue is. If we could find a way to bring large amounts of tourists to ISS for a much smaller price per launch than currently that would be a day to come.

Comon that's pathetic and you know it. The whole space program is pathetic to what it should be.

Dollar for Dollar I say. What is spent on military, should be spent on exploration. All great empires or cultures of the past did this.

Or Dollar for Dollar, I say. What is spent feeding the poor, the depraved, the useless in society; needs to be spent on the wanted endeavors of it's intelligent, it's inventive, it's adventurous. Endeavors that are not materially profitable....at least in the short term as shortsighted the powers that be, are currently.