The Not so (I)SS
The I in ISS is starting to fade.
As space missions become more commercial (because governments are trying to find some purpose to the big hunk-o-metal in the sky), tensions aboard the ISS are rising.
Essentially, what happened is that Russia started billing the US for sending astronauts into space. The US has responded by not allowing Russian cosmonauts to use US ISS facilities.
It has gotten to the point that Russians cant use the US toilets or gym.
This creates a problem, especially as the ISS crew recently expanded to the long-planned 6 instead of the 3 person skeleton crew it has been running since 1998.
I cant imagine that the current US/Russian relations are helping the situation any.
I have never thought that the ISS makes a great deal of sense - I think that the govt. should be involved only on the cutting edge of space exploration, where there is little economic short-term incentive. I don't think that they should be operating a space hotel where limited scientific research can be done. If one thing has been proven by the space shuttle (on which many such science missions were carried out before the ISS was operational) it is that humans floating around in space to conduct experiments on plants and crystals is not an economically viable operation.
Leave near-space to the space tourists, and focus on the Moon and beyond, as well as robotic probes. That shoudl be the NASA mandate.
As space missions become more commercial (because governments are trying to find some purpose to the big hunk-o-metal in the sky), tensions aboard the ISS are rising.
Essentially, what happened is that Russia started billing the US for sending astronauts into space. The US has responded by not allowing Russian cosmonauts to use US ISS facilities.
It has gotten to the point that Russians cant use the US toilets or gym.
This creates a problem, especially as the ISS crew recently expanded to the long-planned 6 instead of the 3 person skeleton crew it has been running since 1998.
I cant imagine that the current US/Russian relations are helping the situation any.
I have never thought that the ISS makes a great deal of sense - I think that the govt. should be involved only on the cutting edge of space exploration, where there is little economic short-term incentive. I don't think that they should be operating a space hotel where limited scientific research can be done. If one thing has been proven by the space shuttle (on which many such science missions were carried out before the ISS was operational) it is that humans floating around in space to conduct experiments on plants and crystals is not an economically viable operation.
Leave near-space to the space tourists, and focus on the Moon and beyond, as well as robotic probes. That shoudl be the NASA mandate.
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