@@MaDmanEXE reminder: opera is still a norwegian company under gdpr and controlled by data authority in oslo to be precisely it's a: norwegian overlay with features not available in firefox (like proxy or myflow).
11:56 - It is grossly irresponsible to show this graphic of things orbiting Earth without noting that object sizes have been exaggerated by several orders of magnitude. Do we have any satellites the size of the island of Manhattan? No. Yet at that scale, Manhattan is < 1 pixel across. Now imagine how tiny ISS would be if placed at Central Park. Far smaller than the width of 1 pixel. So those satellites are the tiniest sliver of 1 pixel. We have photos of Earth taken from deep space. Like from Epic. And this is why you see NOTHING orbiting Earth. You cannot even see ISS. It is all way too tiny. This graphic was done as PROPAGANDA for the purpose of scaring everyone about the threat of orbital debris. It was made purposely to LIE to you. Congratulations. You've joined the club by not marking it properly. Any channel dedicated to space education should know far better.
I am old enough to remember that this space station was sold to the taxpayers of the world as a modular, renewable, expandable, and permanent orbital research platform. Much of the justification for its cost was the promise that as modular elements became obsolete or damaged, or simply wore out, they could be replaced indefinitely. rather than having to ditch the whole thing. That, plus the promise that it could be expanded into a potential way station for exploration deeper into space was a large part of what gained international public support for the program.
They definitely could have replaced obsolete modules. But they did not. And now it has gotten to the point where the entire ISS is obsolete. Every single module would require replacing... which is basically equivalent to constructing a brand new space station from scratch.
I think the reason many folks are sad about the end of the ISS is that they look around at the world we live in and just know, deep in their hearts, that it will never be replaced.
Yep, it's one of the marvels that remains from our peak as a civilization and when the time is up there wont ever be a replacement, we do not have the economy for it, we do not have the social and cultural incentives either, and lastly, the scariest one yet, we're facing a major technological decline due to the fall of our communities, various institutions including academia. Science and technology has reached absolute peak, it's downhill from here.
Its literally going to be replaced before the old one is gone. Like he said at the end of the video. If theres no space station. China would gladly start to partner with some of the countries. Becoming space leader which America wont let that happen. Although i know theres a law in America that we can never partner with china.
@@FUPA_CABRA : I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Will we get another space station before our culture succeeds in committing self-erasure? Only time will tell, and time is running out.
@@MrCenturion13 throughout history there been these massive civilization worldwide. Each one has been completely wiped out. Somehow we manage to repopulate the world. Supposedly no one really knows what caused each cataclysm. Its only reasonable to think eventually a cataclysm will happen to us. But i kinda think this time will be different. I think we will somehow take ourselves out before nature does it for us. But maybe past civilizations got so advanced for their time period that it was like playing a video game and winning a level and proceeding to another. All the alien talk thats in every civilization. Maybe once humans beat their level. The aliens take us all to the next level and each time we repopulate its because we are all the new players.
NASA considered several options for disposing of the ISS. One idea was to boost the station into a “graveyard orbit” higher than 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles), where it would remain indefinitely. I wish they went with this option for future generations
That is a crazy amount of propellent that you would need to push it to that kind of altitude, not to mention that the ISS will now be abandoned and slowly breaking apart causing debris that will forever be haunting those orbits. People like to imagine a completely intact ISS that you could go and stay the night or something but you have to remember that the ISS will *not* be maintained. It would be breaking apart and completely unsafe to get too close to in space. You can't just visit it like a museum, and it may not even stay in one piece to begin with.
@@BrotherCheng Its much more likely to remain completely intact at a high orbit for tens of thousand of years than it is to break up. The odds of anything hitting it are ridiculously small. Nothing is going to corrode in a vaccum either. The reason they didn't go with that option was the cost.
@@johno1544 You would need to completely passivate the ISS. Otherwise there are propellant and batteries in the ISS, which hold energy that could be released if say parts fail over time. I don't think the ISS is designed to be easily passivated like that unlike say a simple satellite or rocket first stage.
@@BrotherCheng What are you talking about venting propellant and discharging batteries is simple. It's a non issue the whole station would be vented there would be no atmosphere inside it so I dont know what you think a failed Lithium ion battery is going to do in a vacuum. It would be preserved better than any man made stucture on earth.
People seem sad that we will lose the ISS, but I have a potential solution: build a new module, attach it to the front, and every time you do that, just discard an old one from the back. After a few years we will have a completely new ISS, but also the same ISS as before. A Space Station of Theseus I guess.
The problem is how is the old module going to deorbit? Like orbital Dynamics can be complicated and things can bounce back in ways that aren't very intuitive. I mean I guess they could deorbit each one individually, but that's a lot of money
It was known from its planned engineering . That it got this far without any issues(major issues necesitating an all out evac) is marvelous. ( no story for Plainly Difficult, so far anyways, "fingers crossed").
Alot of people are too emotionally attached to the ISS. I dont blame them, but this was ALWAYS the plan for it. Its served its purpose, its getting old. Eventually you have to replace the old with the new.
I’m that way with Hubble. It would have been AMAZING if it could have been retrieved by a space shuttle then flown back to earth and preserved in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, but sadly it’s going to be scuttled like the ISS. I felt a pang of sadness when Cassini got burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere too.
Wasnt always the plan NASA had considered pushing it into higher orbit so it could be a museum/time capsule that would be perfectly preserved for thousands of years into the future.
We are attached to it because it represented an era of peace and international cooperation in the 90s. US, Russia and many other countries working together to advance science. At that same time, Israeli and Palestinian leaders were shaking hands at the White House, the Berlin Wall had fallen just a few years before and Apartheid in South Africa was finally over. The ISS felt like a step towards a Star Trek future. Now they're telling me they're scrapping it and want to give the next space station to a private company, in an era where the new robber barons are the techbro billionaires cosplaying as space moguls, Boeing builds airplanes with pieces literally falling off the sky, Israel has killed 40,000 people in Gaza, Russia keeps bombing Ukraine, and a reality show rapist is leading the US polls. Damn right we're emotionally attached to the ISS.
Slight correction.. Rogozin is no longer the head of Roscosmos. He left post after the Ukraine invasion and is a military commander in Eastern Ukraine.
So what you are saying is, he has been sent to die because he wanted to work with the Americans. Russian generals in Ukraine often don't live long. On the other hand, him defecting would be a huge boon.
After his ranting about Russia ‘ending’ the ISS or something, he was sent to an occupied area, where an explosion put some fragments into his backside.
The problem we have is that we live in an era now, where the kinds of forces that instigated and motivated the development of massive investment into projects like the ISS. That sort of post cold war era of optimism and international cooperation, is now no more. I doubt we will ever see a project anytime in the near future come close to the scale, ambition and funding of the ISS. Especially not from the public sector. And that is what worries me. That yes. Even though it is aging and reaching the end of its lifespan, we will likely never see anything like it for another 50 years or so. And the point is, we are no longer in a political or economic landscape where such an ambitious project could ever be replicated. And any replacement, if there ever is one. Will never be able to match what the ISS provides. We have been living off of the success of past generations for too long, without the willingness to make those same investments and risks that those pioneers did in the cold war and post cold war years. you're never gonna get the funding to build an all new station or any replacement of that sort. So yeah even though maintainence costs will undoubtedly keep rising, we dont really have a choice. We've seen this time and time again with numerous government projects. Retiring old service eqipment before we have any viable replacements, and then end up in massive gaps in our capabilities. This is exactly what happened in 2011 after the shuttle retired. I fear the same will be true when the ISS is retired before a suitable replacement is in store. And my point is, that replacement may never come because the drive that made the ISS no longer exists. Not the space shuttle, nor the international cooperation, nor frankly the funding or interest. The trouble were in right now is that we are living off our cold war and immediate post cold war legacy hardware. Living off of the grand investments made by past generations, But are now Unwilling to make those same investments today. And thus we are constantly left with aging legacy projects that are closely approaching their shelf life while having no feasible plans for replacements. I just imagine sometimes where we would be without private organizations like SpaceX. SpaceX right now is basically carrying the entire US space launch market singlehandedly. The public sector and old legacy corporations like boeing have completely fizzled out. I cant imagine what the future of US Spaceflight would be if it were left to them. Once the legacy of the Cold war and the mid 20th century projects, the time when America was at the height of its power. When we're done living off of all that. Where will we be left? It seems to me we are a generation piggybacking off the success of a previous greater generation, the real pioneers. Now we find ourselves Unwilling to take those same risks and make those same investments to lay the groundwork for the next step. The one saving grace we have is hope in the private sector. But as far as the public sector is concerned. I feel that era of great projects of grand national visions and international cooperation is long over.
I recently went to a VR experience about the ISS in Houston. They basically get you to walk in a giant room where you see in VR as if you were standing next to a real life sized ISS. It's a great experience, and two things stuck out in particular: first, the size--it's truly massive for a "science station floating in space"; second, it's _very_ impressive seeing all the instruments, experiments, EVA suits (the space suits) and all the details on all the different modules--it's truly an alien, sci-fi experience compared to the "mundane" reality back on Earth. It's another world up there.
Non of the replacement options are very interesting. What happened to the design for the one from the 60's that spins and holds 80 ppl? Now that would be cool!
I genuinely love this guy. His demeanor, the way that he presents, the level of research that goes into each and every one of his videos. The dude is a treasure.
There's zero guarantee they will build another like it, the Chinese one is still not finished and when it will, it will be the Size of Mir! And the US one will probably be smaller as well. You guys are to eager to see it gone. The most impressive tech humans ever build, when they work and cooperate together, will be gone, destroyed in a ball of fire and many of you are cheering for it, sad times indeed.
@@Argoon1981 In space, you can't afford monuments as they pose a risk for a other orbiting vessels. It has to be managed and costs a lot of money. Who's going to pay for that.
Oops, sorry guys, we mixed up the order of the modules assembly you'll be getting the life support module next month. Please hold your breath til then ok, awesome, y'all have a great day now. 😬🤣
I saw if fly over at the weekend. I always watch it until it goes out of sight. For me in the south of the uk, it was over greece before i lost sight of it. Will be a shame for it to go.
interesting choice of footage. Overall the B-52 don't fly much at all, nothing compared to a commercial airliner, which is why they're still sort of in service
You should count the number of flying cycles, not age or not even flying hours. It's the compression/ decompression cycles that matters. A commercial aircraft may do in one day the amount of cycles that some military aircraft will do in a few months.
You are usually doing more of historic topic in the realm of aviation and spacefaring. But I like it quite a lot if you touch outlooks of the future, like in the last bit of this video. Would love if you could go into more detail, make comparisons of the plans and also highlight some other interesting projects the future hold. Like future projects about investigating Mars, Venus, or the Moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
If you want to take it to a high stable orbit you are talking an extraordinary amount of delta-V needed. Otherwise you just push it slightly higher and now it's turned into space junk causing harm for everyone in the vicinity. You also can't really visit it in the future because the space station will not be maintained and unsafe to get too close to. People think this is like an ancient site like the Stonehenge but space does not work like that.
I would like to see a rotating habitat providing 50-75% Earth gravity. There would be stresses on the superstructure but this is an engineering issue. Eventually we're going to need to perfect this type of design if we want humans to live in space for more than a few weeks or months.
Why would you want to live in space? There is nothing there. You would be living in the space equivalent of a SuperMax prison. No breeze, no trees, no grass, no birds, no brooks, no streams - NADA! Humans and chickens and gardens can only flourish on Earth.
@@chrisc8156Same with Mars. Antartica is a friendlier environment & people aren't flocking to the poles here yet have this complete fantasy about Mars.
You might see a privately funded tourist destination, rotating habitat. But the idea of a habitat for research (which is what the ISS has been doing for over 20 years) is negated, by the goal of setting up habitats on the moon. The biggest problem is that the human body's bone structure starts to decay in micro-gravity. It is essential to find out what happens to the human body in 1/3rd gravity (on the moon), to see if we can live on Mars. To date, no test has ever been done at 1/3rd gravity. (The research at micro-gravity is to push development of new products. ) A 9 month trip to Mars in micro-gravity will still allow humans to be able to stand up on Mars without medical assistance, but will they recover in 1/3rd gravity? That's why we need the moon trials.
@@chrisc8156 True in the early days, but once we get a robotic construction infrastructure in space, in other words robotic mining ships extracting metals from asteroids to build vast rotating structures like O'Neill cylinders... it will start to feel like living on an island or a small town, rather than a tiny enclosed canister. With sufficient shielding, a cylinder could be made arbitrarily large and house thousands, even millions of people, along with farms, trees, bodies of water, a rich clean atmosphere, and near-Earth gravity. Of course we're talking at least 100 or 150 years into the future now. But it's got to be coming. We have the technical resources right now, just not the money.
This channel is among the best in aerospace technology and history. It wasn't "known" that USSR could not afford a moon shot, as implied in this video. History confirmed that the soviets had finances from their government's taxing and government owned industry. JFK did believe that the U.S. had the engineers, scientists and fervor to win the space race, also confirmed by history. In retrospect, the U.S.A. was fortunate to receive a wake-up call from Sputnik.
A few years back, I got a phone call from my sister who told us when the ISS was going to pass overhead. My wife and kids and I went out at the appointed hour and watched it pass overhead as predicted. We all waved at fellow Canadian Chris Hadfield. I will never forget it.
Instead of burning it up in the atmosphere, I'd like to see it sent into a high earth orbit so that it could be visited as an historical artifact sometime in the future.
it is sad to know this station that I've seen fly over Me nearly a hundred times will be deorbited. but I'm definitely hyped to know it will be replaced with something that continues with a fresh start.
It seems like a waste now that all that mass is already in orbit to let it just fall back, but recycling it would probably cost more than just pushing more stuff up.
I find completelly bizarre that they trust starship for arthemis But dont conunt on it's capability for designing a space station Massive cargo area, 100+T to LEO The thing could even become a station by itself, and land back on earth from time to time to change things up and get new crew
its not worth 150 billion anymore. its old and it will get more and more difficult to maintain as it goes on. we need new stations with modern tech in them. that said the iss was an incredible achievement.
Yup. And the new station needs to be designed in such a way that every single module can be replaced once it ages out, or we are going to have the exact same problem in 30 years.
Modern tech isn't always better tech. Specially on the harsh conditions of space, many components on modern computers, are too fragile and sensitive to be in space. All because as transistors became smaller and smaller, so the probability of current leakage and errors increased. This is why you can have 70 or 60 years old computers still work fine today and 10 years old ones, just break. (This is also because of modern manufacturing processes that care less of longevity...) And btw personally, I hardly believe that US private companies can build a space station, as large as the ISS alone, is just way to expensive but I will wait and see.
@@Argoon1981 iss started small but do we need something as large as the iss for it to be successful? the US modules were made by private companies mostly boeing an northrop wasnt it? i think we have a good understanding what tech works in space. if you are trying to argue something made in the 90s is as advanced as now can i point you to the JWST. are you saying its worst than the hubble? its not that the tech in the iss is bad though, just worn out and we can make better stuff now.
I've had the same "pc computer" for 25 years. The brushed al-u-min-e-um case is the only original part and it's been upgraded to prevent thermal fatigue. I'll miss ISS. I do love modular parts and standardization.
I doubt we will see another space station in our lifetime this will be the end of permanent human presence in space and the end of a international project of cooperation and human ingenuity
Lunar gateway: Starlab: Axiom space station: Orbital reef: These are all space stations that are coming up. Try doing some more research on the topic first!
Until a plan for replacement is put into action, (NOT just announced), I will not be convinced that will ever have a replacement for the ISS. And that we will remain forever more grounded on Earth.
ISS apart from a technological marvel is a geopolitical miracle, built by enemies that cooperated in peace. I think ISS should remain in space as a monument, no manned missions, just the necessary thrust to remain in the 420km altitude.
Well it would still break up - and even though its in the self cleansing zone - its still a lot of potential debris that can cause issues... its sad but true. It would be nice if they can save artifacts from the station though.
@@Ph33NIXx it's a point of view, technically the ISS is a satellite. In reality it's more than that but I have a feeling that nobody cares and after 5-6 years it will be forgotten and never existed. I hope I will proven wrong.
They're not stranded. Their stay has been extended so that more tests can be run to better understand the reasons for some system failures to see what other might be possible. It's the perfect testing environment.
The Boeing Starliner was designed and built by a large, inefficient bean-counter corporation that has serious engineering defects in its jet planes in recent years. SpaceX, on the other hand, operates more like a 1950s company that is emphasizes hard work and engineering excellence.
150 billion and we still don't have any research on people banging in space. :) Considering they have all these problems with the space station just a couple hundred miles away, I don't see how we can says wer're ready to go go Mars.
This idea of getting in a station really scares me. But space in general does that. One reason not to go; the smells of people. Edit;I mean just one micro meteorite in the right place,..
Nope. Russia can't launch to that station. The Chinese station's orbital inclination is too low. There's also no rush of countries wanting to take part in that Chinese program.
I remember being a little kid and watching the first modules go up. My dad worked witht the Atlas and Titan rocket programs, so I was pretty engaged with space stuff as a kid. For all of its faults, its amazing that we managed to pull this off and worked as an international effort. I honestly believed as a kid that the ISS was the start of the startrek age.... How niave...
Unfortunately thats not how things work. The ISS is a large structure but a very sensitive one. Too much thrust and it will break apart. Its also 400+ tons, so good luck getting it even out of Low Earth Orbit in any reasonable timeframe. Give it up, the station is old, its served its purpose, its time for the old to make way for the new.
We’re not going to need a replacement because barring any major, major advances in chemical engineering and physics humans won’t be able to travel to any further destinations in space. Let alone the fact that this iteration of civilization has already peaked in most aspects and we will now face a slow and steady decline until the next civilization gets going.
Maybe Starship can't be the long-term, permanent space station solution most people expect, but what if it fills the niche of a sort of temporary, short-term space station for limited to large crew capacity? Here's what I mean: 1) Have 'Space Station' variant starships that can be launched to orbit with astronauts and everything they'll need for their mission. 2) Launch the space station into orbit and let it remain there (days, weeks, months) for as long as the mission requires. 3) Deorbit and land it at the end of the mission with the astronauts, and do necessary refurbishments or feature additions. *You could have a docking adaptor/interface for emergency/ad-hoc crew and supplies ingress/egress. This provides a unique, reusable space station solution for special use cases. This is especially a good solution for space tourism. You'd have no need for crew transfer between spacecraft AND station as the spacecraft IS the station. EDIT: You could then have hundreds of Starship Space Stations up there with thousands of astronauts (on different missions) or even tourists. Again, just land the starships whenever they complete their missions.
They should at least allow civilian tourism to the ISS before the old giant has its grand finale. It holds great historical value, and the public should have a chance to see it all before it's time to say goodbye to the largest artificial star in the night sky.
There has to be a willing partaker to salvage this item in space. It's the first opportunity to open a Space Hardware Store chain. I can't believe the loss.
Paul, love your channel, top notch research as always. You highlighted the metal fatigue factor which enlightened me as to why a simple refit of some modules would not be enough of a safety factor to make an extension of service life viable option. Still it’s a shame to junk the ISS.
I can’t believe that NASA hasn’t embraced inflatable modules. It would reduce the metal fatigue problem that you mentioned. You get a ton more volume per launch and it’s better for absorbing space debris. I think it needs to be the basis of the next station.
6:15 I'm pretty sure that's one of Skylab's crew launches (Skylab 2/3/4), not the space station itself. It looks like Saturn IB taking off from the "milkstool", rather than Saturn V launch.
It'd be cool if they could soft crash it into the moon so it can be mostly rebuilt at a later date for historical reasons. Fun to imagine the ISS being a tourist destination on your visit to the moon so many years from now.
It would be interesting to know how many principal structural elements have been analysed to get their safe lifes (assuming most are uninspectable so ruling out fail safe and damage tolerance design approaches) and which are the limiting items ! And are any parts strain gauged and delivering data ??
The main reason for the ISS's position is that it needed to reachable by both the space shuttle from Cape Canaveral and Soyuz from Baikonur, as well as being protected from radiation by the earth's magnetic field.
Point Nemo is also the location of Ry'leh - we should hope C'thul'hu doesn't get miffed with the rain of parts ISS proposals have included splitting hardware off from the original modules but the harsh reality is that space fungus has spread throughout the entire core structure, just as it did on Mir and any modules disconnected will bring it to a new station, allowing that to be infested even faster Metal eating fungus surviving & thriving on the inside AND OUTSIDE of your LEO space station isn't a good thing to consider Metal fatigue is an issue but not nearly as much of a problem as the fungus
The ISS was lucky enough to be exactly passing over the tower one of the world trade center when it suddenly heated down to dust . And that it miraculously had the cupola packed with one time instrumentation with no other use for .
I'm sad at the loss of the ISS but understand that it essentially comes down to wear and tear space is hard and expensive... I just hope we don't have a huge gap where we don't have humans in orbit
Will there be elements of it that are kept on orbit for later use? Eg, O2/nitrogen, water, solar panels, stuff? It costs so much to put mass into space, surely some of the base elements are still of use?
Download Opera here opr.as/Opera-browser-curiousdroid
Reminder: Opera is gone since 16 march 2013, this is just Chrome with Chinese overlay and some Firefox features.
Opera, re-skinned Chrome lol
Brave browser is the best!
@@MaDmanEXE reminder: opera is still a norwegian company under gdpr and controlled by data authority in oslo
to be precisely it's a: norwegian overlay with features not available in firefox (like proxy or myflow).
11:56 - It is grossly irresponsible to show this graphic of things orbiting Earth without noting that object sizes have been exaggerated by several orders of magnitude.
Do we have any satellites the size of the island of Manhattan? No. Yet at that scale, Manhattan is < 1 pixel across. Now imagine how tiny ISS would be if placed at Central Park. Far smaller than the width of 1 pixel.
So those satellites are the tiniest sliver of 1 pixel. We have photos of Earth taken from deep space. Like from Epic. And this is why you see NOTHING orbiting Earth. You cannot even see ISS. It is all way too tiny.
This graphic was done as PROPAGANDA for the purpose of scaring everyone about the threat of orbital debris. It was made purposely to LIE to you.
Congratulations. You've joined the club by not marking it properly. Any channel dedicated to space education should know far better.
I am old enough to remember that this space station was sold to the taxpayers of the world as a modular, renewable, expandable, and permanent orbital research platform. Much of the justification for its cost was the promise that as modular elements became obsolete or damaged, or simply wore out, they could be replaced indefinitely. rather than having to ditch the whole thing. That, plus the promise that it could be expanded into a potential way station for exploration deeper into space was a large part of what gained international public support for the program.
I’m guessing those planning had an operational shuttle fleet as an indispensable component. No shuttle means no replacement modules.
@@xuansu9036 Elon
Those in power will say anything to sell us on their latest bs idea/plan
They definitely could have replaced obsolete modules. But they did not. And now it has gotten to the point where the entire ISS is obsolete. Every single module would require replacing... which is basically equivalent to constructing a brand new space station from scratch.
@@LeongGunners They probably will not have very good luck getting people to support the expense of a new one.
Love the fact that your ad includes mentioning an ad-blocker 😂
Your move, Mr. Credit card
I think the reason many folks are sad about the end of the ISS is that they look around at the world we live in and just know, deep in their hearts, that it will never be replaced.
Yep, it's one of the marvels that remains from our peak as a civilization and when the time is up there wont ever be a replacement, we do not have the economy for it, we do not have the social and cultural incentives either, and lastly, the scariest one yet, we're facing a major technological decline due to the fall of our communities, various institutions including academia. Science and technology has reached absolute peak, it's downhill from here.
This is depressing but true. We are witnessing the Grear Filter in action.
Its literally going to be replaced before the old one is gone. Like he said at the end of the video. If theres no space station. China would gladly start to partner with some of the countries. Becoming space leader which America wont let that happen. Although i know theres a law in America that we can never partner with china.
@@FUPA_CABRA : I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Will we get another space station before our culture succeeds in committing self-erasure? Only time will tell, and time is running out.
@@MrCenturion13 throughout history there been these massive civilization worldwide. Each one has been completely wiped out. Somehow we manage to repopulate the world. Supposedly no one really knows what caused each cataclysm. Its only reasonable to think eventually a cataclysm will happen to us. But i kinda think this time will be different. I think we will somehow take ourselves out before nature does it for us. But maybe past civilizations got so advanced for their time period that it was like playing a video game and winning a level and proceeding to another. All the alien talk thats in every civilization. Maybe once humans beat their level. The aliens take us all to the next level and each time we repopulate its because we are all the new players.
2030! Is that when the Starliner crew is coming back, too?
NASA considered several options for disposing of the ISS. One idea was to boost the station into a “graveyard orbit” higher than 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles), where it would remain indefinitely. I wish they went with this option for future generations
That is a crazy amount of propellent that you would need to push it to that kind of altitude, not to mention that the ISS will now be abandoned and slowly breaking apart causing debris that will forever be haunting those orbits. People like to imagine a completely intact ISS that you could go and stay the night or something but you have to remember that the ISS will *not* be maintained. It would be breaking apart and completely unsafe to get too close to in space. You can't just visit it like a museum, and it may not even stay in one piece to begin with.
Yeh that would cost too much money. The simplest and cheapest thing is just to deorbit it.
@@BrotherCheng Its much more likely to remain completely intact at a high orbit for tens of thousand of years than it is to break up. The odds of anything hitting it are ridiculously small. Nothing is going to corrode in a vaccum either. The reason they didn't go with that option was the cost.
@@johno1544 You would need to completely passivate the ISS. Otherwise there are propellant and batteries in the ISS, which hold energy that could be released if say parts fail over time. I don't think the ISS is designed to be easily passivated like that unlike say a simple satellite or rocket first stage.
@@BrotherCheng What are you talking about venting propellant and discharging batteries is simple. It's a non issue the whole station would be vented there would be no atmosphere inside it so I dont know what you think a failed Lithium ion battery is going to do in a vacuum. It would be preserved better than any man made stucture on earth.
People seem sad that we will lose the ISS, but I have a potential solution: build a new module, attach it to the front, and every time you do that, just discard an old one from the back. After a few years we will have a completely new ISS, but also the same ISS as before. A Space Station of Theseus I guess.
The problem is how is the old module going to deorbit?
Like orbital Dynamics can be complicated and things can bounce back in ways that aren't very intuitive. I mean I guess they could deorbit each one individually, but that's a lot of money
what do you do when you get to the truss section? that thing is 50% of the station and with it gone you lose most of the cooling and power generation.
i HaVe
You really didn't listen to the video. The overall structure will fall apart, and replacing the main truss and similar sections isn't simple.
Yup, replace each part. Replacements can be the literally inflated ones.
It was known from its planned engineering .
That it got this far without any issues(major issues necesitating an all out evac) is marvelous. ( no story for Plainly Difficult, so far anyways, "fingers crossed").
Plainly Difficult is among my favourite channels, but I'm with you.. I'd rather not see one on the ISS.
Stay off our bingo cards, ISS.
The end of the International Space Station will be sad
been an opera user for 20 years, it continues to get better and better
Alot of people are too emotionally attached to the ISS. I dont blame them, but this was ALWAYS the plan for it. Its served its purpose, its getting old. Eventually you have to replace the old with the new.
Problem is... there is nothing new.
The problem is the 'new' hasn't even started yet...
I’m that way with Hubble. It would have been AMAZING if it could have been retrieved by a space shuttle then flown back to earth and preserved in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, but sadly it’s going to be scuttled like the ISS. I felt a pang of sadness when Cassini got burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere too.
Wasnt always the plan NASA had considered pushing it into higher orbit so it could be a museum/time capsule that would be perfectly preserved for thousands of years into the future.
We are attached to it because it represented an era of peace and international cooperation in the 90s.
US, Russia and many other countries working together to advance science. At that same time, Israeli and Palestinian leaders were shaking hands at the White House, the Berlin Wall had fallen just a few years before and Apartheid in South Africa was finally over.
The ISS felt like a step towards a Star Trek future.
Now they're telling me they're scrapping it and want to give the next space station to a private company, in an era where the new robber barons are the techbro billionaires cosplaying as space moguls, Boeing builds airplanes with pieces literally falling off the sky, Israel has killed 40,000 people in Gaza, Russia keeps bombing Ukraine, and a reality show rapist is leading the US polls.
Damn right we're emotionally attached to the ISS.
We're not gonna make it to the United Federation of Planets level any time soon in my view.
First contact with the Vulcans isn’t until April 5. 2063…so we have time. 🖖
Star trek professionalism is a pipe dream unfortunately. Growing up with ds9 I was heavily disappointed by the amount of unprofessional adults
Don't we need to have a massive world war first? Then we start taking over space.
Going faster than the speed of light would be essential. What if it’s impossible? It might just be impossible.
@@djblackprincecdn if Trump wins we'll have WW3 soon enough - and since Roddenberry predicted 2026, that's a scary thought
This sounds like the turning point of a scifi movie where where everyone finally ditch the fleeting peace created from a status quo.
Offtopic; Nice that Scott Manley and Curious Droid have videos on the decomissioning of the ISS.
Slight correction..
Rogozin is no longer the head of Roscosmos. He left post after the Ukraine invasion and is a military commander in Eastern Ukraine.
So what you are saying is, he has been sent to die because he wanted to work with the Americans.
Russian generals in Ukraine often don't live long. On the other hand, him defecting would be a huge boon.
@@Predator42ID Sounds about right.
After his ranting about Russia ‘ending’ the ISS or something, he was sent to an occupied area, where an explosion put some fragments into his backside.
Russia should go get him for his betrayal.
@@SubwayJack919 bootlicker
The problem we have is that we live in an era now, where the kinds of forces that instigated and motivated the development of massive investment into projects like the ISS. That sort of post cold war era of optimism and international cooperation, is now no more.
I doubt we will ever see a project anytime in the near future come close to the scale, ambition and funding of the ISS.
Especially not from the public sector.
And that is what worries me.
That yes. Even though it is aging and reaching the end of its lifespan, we will likely never see anything like it for another 50 years or so.
And the point is, we are no longer in a political or economic landscape where such an ambitious project could ever be replicated. And any replacement, if there ever is one. Will never be able to match what the ISS provides.
We have been living off of the success of past generations for too long, without the willingness to make those same investments and risks that those pioneers did in the cold war and post cold war years.
you're never gonna get the funding to build an all new station or any replacement of that sort.
So yeah even though maintainence costs will undoubtedly keep rising, we dont really have a choice.
We've seen this time and time again with numerous government projects. Retiring old service eqipment before we have any viable replacements, and then end up in massive gaps in our capabilities.
This is exactly what happened in 2011 after the shuttle retired.
I fear the same will be true when the ISS is retired before a suitable replacement is in store.
And my point is, that replacement may never come because the drive that made the ISS no longer exists.
Not the space shuttle, nor the international cooperation, nor frankly the funding or interest.
The trouble were in right now is that we are living off our cold war and immediate post cold war legacy hardware.
Living off of the grand investments made by past generations, But are now Unwilling to make those same investments today. And thus we are constantly left with aging legacy projects that are closely approaching their shelf life while having no feasible plans for replacements.
I just imagine sometimes where we would be without private organizations like SpaceX. SpaceX right now is basically carrying the entire US space launch market singlehandedly.
The public sector and old legacy corporations like boeing have completely fizzled out. I cant imagine what the future of US Spaceflight would be if it were left to them.
Once the legacy of the Cold war and the mid 20th century projects, the time when America was at the height of its power. When we're done living off of all that. Where will we be left?
It seems to me we are a generation piggybacking off the success of a previous greater generation, the real pioneers. Now we find ourselves Unwilling to take those same risks and make those same investments to lay the groundwork for the next step.
The one saving grace we have is hope in the private sector.
But as far as the public sector is concerned.
I feel that era of great projects of grand national visions and international cooperation is long over.
I agree with you, but damn man, you could learn to synthesise your comments a bit. You repeat the same idea like 15 times
Always love the idea of all countries working together on a super project instead of many smaller "side" projects.
I recently went to a VR experience about the ISS in Houston. They basically get you to walk in a giant room where you see in VR as if you were standing next to a real life sized ISS. It's a great experience, and two things stuck out in particular: first, the size--it's truly massive for a "science station floating in space"; second, it's _very_ impressive seeing all the instruments, experiments, EVA suits (the space suits) and all the details on all the different modules--it's truly an alien, sci-fi experience compared to the "mundane" reality back on Earth. It's another world up there.
Always love a new video! I hope you're doing well
Non of the replacement options are very interesting. What happened to the design for the one from the 60's that spins and holds 80 ppl? Now that would be cool!
We missed you CuriosDroid !
Yes, where did Paul go?
satisfy me
It's just been 3 weeks since his last upload....
Nowhere! @@envitech02
I genuinely love this guy. His demeanor, the way that he presents, the level of research that goes into each and every one of his videos. The dude is a treasure.
Say Hey, Curious D! Great video as always - nice mix of the old and new, maybe someday stuff... 🖖
Excellent as always Paul! A great summary of the history, and why it unfortunately can't stay up there forever.
$150 Billion that is less than the UK is spending on it's latest high speed rail.
It's worn out. Time to let it go safely and gracefully. And hopefully spectacularly! 🎆
There's zero guarantee they will build another like it, the Chinese one is still not finished and when it will, it will be the Size of Mir! And the US one will probably be smaller as well.
You guys are to eager to see it gone. The most impressive tech humans ever build, when they work and cooperate together, will be gone, destroyed in a ball of fire and many of you are cheering for it, sad times indeed.
@@Argoon1981sad times with many wars to fund ahead. The peaceful times are starting to end
@@Argoon1981 In space, you can't afford monuments as they pose a risk for a other orbiting vessels. It has to be managed and costs a lot of money. Who's going to pay for that.
@@paulmichaelfreedman8334a bigger risk is china and russia exploding sattelites
I especially appreciate the careful research on which the documentary is based.
13:01 Don’t know if I would put my trust into a company that can’t even spell commercial properly to make a space station!
satisfy me
😂😂
Oops, sorry guys, we mixed up the order of the modules assembly you'll be getting the life support module next month. Please hold your breath til then ok, awesome, y'all have a great day now. 😬🤣
@@iRossco A kerbal would do a better job
Great, entertaining and interesting content as ever, thanks. Gosh, Opera? I last heard of this several years ago!
Alrighty? I remember MIRs descent like it was yesterday!
satisfy me
I saw if fly over at the weekend. I always watch it until it goes out of sight. For me in the south of the uk, it was over greece before i lost sight of it. Will be a shame for it to go.
Aircraft have a limited lifespan: B-52 is shown.
Some have....very LONG lifespans....
@@brianmessemer2973 Like DC-3' in south america 👍🏻
interesting choice of footage. Overall the B-52 don't fly much at all, nothing compared to a commercial airliner, which is why they're still sort of in service
@@brianmessemer2973 How can you kill that which refuses to die? The '52 will be flying for another 80 years I bet.
You should count the number of flying cycles, not age or not even flying hours. It's the compression/ decompression cycles that matters. A commercial aircraft may do in one day the amount of cycles that some military aircraft will do in a few months.
You are usually doing more of historic topic in the realm of aviation and spacefaring. But I like it quite a lot if you touch outlooks of the future, like in the last bit of this video. Would love if you could go into more detail, make comparisons of the plans and also highlight some other interesting projects the future hold. Like future projects about investigating Mars, Venus, or the Moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
They should boost the ISS into high Earth orbit. Turn it into a Museum, and charge people to visit. Space Tourism.
It would be a giant pile of space hazard (and subsequently a cloud of debris) without proper maintaining
If you want to take it to a high stable orbit you are talking an extraordinary amount of delta-V needed. Otherwise you just push it slightly higher and now it's turned into space junk causing harm for everyone in the vicinity. You also can't really visit it in the future because the space station will not be maintained and unsafe to get too close to. People think this is like an ancient site like the Stonehenge but space does not work like that.
400 tons. That would need a HUUUUUGE amount of thrust
So long as they stick a super high def camera in it and film the re entry, I'm all for it
I would like to see a rotating habitat providing 50-75% Earth gravity. There would be stresses on the superstructure but this is an engineering issue. Eventually we're going to need to perfect this type of design if we want humans to live in space for more than a few weeks or months.
The stress would be less than just sitting at 1G on earth. Basically a non issue
Why would you want to live in space? There is nothing there. You would be living in the space equivalent of a SuperMax prison. No breeze, no trees, no grass, no birds, no brooks, no streams - NADA! Humans and chickens and gardens can only flourish on Earth.
@@chrisc8156Same with Mars. Antartica is a friendlier environment & people aren't flocking to the poles here yet have this complete fantasy about Mars.
You might see a privately funded tourist destination, rotating habitat.
But the idea of a habitat for research (which is what the ISS has been doing for over 20 years) is negated, by the goal of setting up habitats on the moon. The biggest problem is that the human body's bone structure starts to decay in micro-gravity. It is essential to find out what happens to the human body in 1/3rd gravity (on the moon), to see if we can live on Mars.
To date, no test has ever been done at 1/3rd gravity. (The research at micro-gravity is to push development of new products. )
A 9 month trip to Mars in micro-gravity will still allow humans to be able to stand up on Mars without medical assistance, but will they recover in 1/3rd gravity? That's why we need the moon trials.
@@chrisc8156 True in the early days, but once we get a robotic construction infrastructure in space, in other words robotic mining ships extracting metals from asteroids to build vast rotating structures like O'Neill cylinders... it will start to feel like living on an island or a small town, rather than a tiny enclosed canister. With sufficient shielding, a cylinder could be made arbitrarily large and house thousands, even millions of people, along with farms, trees, bodies of water, a rich clean atmosphere, and near-Earth gravity. Of course we're talking at least 100 or 150 years into the future now. But it's got to be coming. We have the technical resources right now, just not the money.
This channel is among the best in aerospace technology and history. It wasn't "known" that USSR could not afford a moon shot, as implied in this video. History confirmed that the soviets had finances from their government's taxing and government owned industry. JFK did believe that the U.S. had the engineers, scientists and fervor to win the space race, also confirmed by history. In retrospect, the U.S.A. was fortunate to receive a wake-up call from Sputnik.
A few years back, I got a phone call from my sister who told us when the ISS was going to pass overhead. My wife and kids and I went out at the appointed hour and watched it pass overhead as predicted. We all waved at fellow Canadian Chris Hadfield. I will never forget it.
There may be millions of tiny particles bombarding it too, eventually turning it into sponge. Great video, thank you for sharing.
Instead of burning it up in the atmosphere, I'd like to see it sent into a high earth orbit so that it could be visited as an historical artifact sometime in the future.
it is sad to know this station that I've seen fly over Me nearly a hundred times will be deorbited.
but I'm definitely hyped to know it will be replaced with something that continues with a fresh start.
400ton that's a lot of inertia no matter what you try do
It seems like a waste now that all that mass is already in orbit to let it just fall back, but recycling it would probably cost more than just pushing more stuff up.
We are losing our manned space exploration capability.
But do we need one?
I find completelly bizarre that they trust starship for arthemis
But dont conunt on it's capability for designing a space station
Massive cargo area, 100+T to LEO
The thing could even become a station by itself, and land back on earth from time to time to change things up and get new crew
Where is my space donut?!
I watch it go over every chance I get. A glorious machine.
You said the past proposed station had three decks but the plan displayed had only two decks.
unless you include the inner ring
A large open space platform. For space expansion is needed.
Something that can be quickly landed on for refueling
its not worth 150 billion anymore. its old and it will get more and more difficult to maintain as it goes on. we need new stations with modern tech in them. that said the iss was an incredible achievement.
Yup. And the new station needs to be designed in such a way that every single module can be replaced once it ages out, or we are going to have the exact same problem in 30 years.
Modern tech isn't always better tech. Specially on the harsh conditions of space, many components on modern computers, are too fragile and sensitive to be in space.
All because as transistors became smaller and smaller, so the probability of current leakage and errors increased. This is why you can have 70 or 60 years old computers still work fine today and 10 years old ones, just break. (This is also because of modern manufacturing processes that care less of longevity...)
And btw personally, I hardly believe that US private companies can build a space station, as large as the ISS alone, is just way to expensive but I will wait and see.
@@Argoon1981 iss started small but do we need something as large as the iss for it to be successful?
the US modules were made by private companies mostly boeing an northrop wasnt it?
i think we have a good understanding what tech works in space. if you are trying to argue something made in the 90s is as advanced as now can i point you to the JWST. are you saying its worst than the hubble? its not that the tech in the iss is bad though, just worn out and we can make better stuff now.
@@Argoon1981 It is trivially easy to radiation harden chips. Transistors became small enough already in the 80s that gamma rays can flip them.
@@geesehoward700 it will most likely have the same fate as the moon missions, and the space shuttle.
I've had the same "pc computer" for 25 years. The brushed al-u-min-e-um case is the only original part and it's been upgraded to prevent thermal fatigue. I'll miss ISS. I do love modular parts and standardization.
I doubt we will see another space station in our lifetime this will be the end of permanent human presence in space and the end of a international project of cooperation and human ingenuity
Sad
Lunar gateway:
Starlab:
Axiom space station:
Orbital reef:
These are all space stations that are coming up. Try doing some more research on the topic first!
You mean human gullibility
Nope. It's time for free market competition to step in.
You do realize the Chinese have their own space station
Until a plan for replacement is put into action, (NOT just announced), I will not be convinced that will ever have a replacement for the ISS.
And that we will remain forever more grounded on Earth.
Gateway (one successor) is in late production. It’s flying as early as late next year
Axioms station is well into development
Chinese space station already replaced it
Great video, Paul...👍
They better hurry building the new station, if left uncheck China will start claiming space as theirs. LMAO
Great topics as always!!!!!!
ISS apart from a technological marvel is a geopolitical miracle, built by enemies that cooperated in peace.
I think ISS should remain in space as a monument, no manned missions, just the necessary thrust to remain in
the 420km altitude.
Even the Hubble will die someday, it's sad but true
Well it would still break up - and even though its in the self cleansing zone - its still a lot of potential debris that can cause issues... its sad but true. It would be nice if they can save artifacts from the station though.
@@Ph33NIXx it's a point of view, technically the ISS is a satellite.
In reality it's more than that but I have a feeling that nobody cares and after 5-6 years it will be forgotten and never existed.
I hope I will proven wrong.
Thank you for mentioning material science! I lived on the U.S.S. Florida (SSBN-728) and yeah. That girl still sails.
🇨🇳 get ready to learn mandarin, buddy 🇨🇳
Brilliant content, once again!
ah yes, privatize it, great idea... how are those two stranded astronauts that went up with the Boeing rocket doing?
They're probably doing better than Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee.
They're not stranded. Their stay has been extended so that more tests can be run to better understand the reasons for some system failures to see what other might be possible. It's the perfect testing environment.
The Boeing Starliner was designed and built by a large, inefficient bean-counter corporation that has serious engineering defects in its jet planes in recent years. SpaceX, on the other hand, operates more like a 1950s company that is emphasizes hard work and engineering excellence.
@@robinseibel7540Careful you might drown in all of that Kool-Aid you're slurping down.
Perhaps NASA should recover them using their crewed module oh wait
You make my inner child Alice Mr Shilito. Thank you
150 billion and we still don't have any research on people banging in space. :) Considering they have all these problems with the space station just a couple hundred miles away, I don't see how we can says wer're ready to go go Mars.
satisfy me Do it until I'm satisfied
satisfy me
Paul, thanks for clearly explaining why the ISS is where it is and why the Russia/China merger is tougher than it looks.
Don't tell me the whole history of ISS to fill time. 🙄 answer the question you posed in the thumbnail. Its why we're here.
The footage at 0:22 was used in the fantastic sci-fi movie Coherence as a stand-in for a comet.
It belongs in a museum
Get to work then, eh?
Been banned from commenting on other threads, the truth obviously hurts.
This idea of getting in a station really scares me. But space in general does that. One reason not to go; the smells of people.
Edit;I mean just one micro meteorite in the right place,..
How about that inflatable module space station! 😬
Solid!
Top KEK!
Peace be with you.
SIMPLE Chinese international space station will replace it
Baha Communist China may not be doing so well by 2030 especially when it comes to something like that
Nope. Russia can't launch to that station. The Chinese station's orbital inclination is too low. There's also no rush of countries wanting to take part in that Chinese program.
@@robinseibel7540 The Chinese build their own because USA denied them access to ISS.... Tiangong space station.
@@bastiaan7777777, maybe, but so what? What does that have to do with anything?
I remember being a little kid and watching the first modules go up. My dad worked witht the Atlas and Titan rocket programs, so I was pretty engaged with space stuff as a kid.
For all of its faults, its amazing that we managed to pull this off and worked as an international effort. I honestly believed as a kid that the ISS was the start of the startrek age.... How niave...
This is a waste. They should attach boosters to the ISS and use it as a ship to travel to Mars. It's already pre-built and ready to go.
Unfortunately thats not how things work. The ISS is a large structure but a very sensitive one. Too much thrust and it will break apart. Its also 400+ tons, so good luck getting it even out of Low Earth Orbit in any reasonable timeframe. Give it up, the station is old, its served its purpose, its time for the old to make way for the new.
bro watched the video with its ears closed
Dunning-Kruger alive and well around here.
They have a habit of "destroying" technology. I wonder why.
Hahahaha!
"But sadly the idea never got off the ground". I see what you did there, Paul :)
We’re not going to need a replacement because barring any major, major advances in chemical engineering and physics humans won’t be able to travel to any further destinations in space. Let alone the fact that this iteration of civilization has already peaked in most aspects and we will now face a slow and steady decline until the next civilization gets going.
That what woke and DEI culture has done to the human race!😂
@@Agent77X It’s not all the fault of DEI and woke culture though it definitely doesn’t help in my opinion.
@@Agent77Xhow exactly has woke culture affected the space programme?
thank you. I had never thought abut fatigue
Maybe Starship can't be the long-term, permanent space station solution most people expect, but what if it fills the niche of a sort of temporary, short-term space station for limited to large crew capacity?
Here's what I mean:
1) Have 'Space Station' variant starships that can be launched to orbit with astronauts and everything they'll need for their mission.
2) Launch the space station into orbit and let it remain there (days, weeks, months) for as long as the mission requires.
3) Deorbit and land it at the end of the mission with the astronauts, and do necessary refurbishments or feature additions.
*You could have a docking adaptor/interface for emergency/ad-hoc crew and supplies ingress/egress.
This provides a unique, reusable space station solution for special use cases. This is especially a good solution for space tourism. You'd have no need for crew transfer between spacecraft AND station as the spacecraft IS the station.
EDIT:
You could then have hundreds of Starship Space Stations up there with thousands of astronauts (on different missions) or even tourists. Again, just land the starships whenever they complete their missions.
They should at least allow civilian tourism to the ISS before the old giant has its grand finale. It holds great historical value, and the public should have a chance to see it all before it's time to say goodbye to the largest artificial star in the night sky.
Jaundice doesn’t lie. Be safe Mr. Droid.
Butch and Suni will still be on board!
There has to be a willing partaker to salvage this item in space. It's the first opportunity to open a Space Hardware Store chain. I can't believe the loss.
It will be sad to see her go.
Thanks for the video!
Paul, love your channel, top notch research as always. You highlighted the metal fatigue factor which enlightened me as to why a simple refit of some modules would not be enough of a safety factor to make an extension of service life viable option. Still it’s a shame to junk the ISS.
I can’t believe that NASA hasn’t embraced inflatable modules. It would reduce the metal fatigue problem that you mentioned. You get a ton more volume per launch and it’s better for absorbing space debris. I think it needs to be the basis of the next station.
Thanks Paul....You are the best....
Old F-4 II Pilot Shoe🇺🇸
6:15 I'm pretty sure that's one of Skylab's crew launches (Skylab 2/3/4), not the space station itself. It looks like Saturn IB taking off from the "milkstool", rather than Saturn V launch.
It'd be cool if they could soft crash it into the moon so it can be mostly rebuilt at a later date for historical reasons. Fun to imagine the ISS being a tourist destination on your visit to the moon so many years from now.
Its re-entry has the potential to damage the ozone layer, it’s not a good idea.
CURIOUS DROID,I pay to have no adverts thank you.
Thanks for another great video
It would be interesting to know how many principal structural elements have been analysed to get their safe lifes (assuming most are uninspectable so ruling out fail safe and damage tolerance design approaches) and which are the limiting items ! And are any parts strain gauged and delivering data ??
It's fascinating that a space station exploits atmosphere to protect itself from space junk.
The main reason for the ISS's position is that it needed to reachable by both the space shuttle from Cape Canaveral and Soyuz from Baikonur, as well as being protected from radiation by the earth's magnetic field.
@@jsoderba I never said anything about reason.
Fly it to a graveyard orbit and let it become a museum for future generations
Very interesting, the space race is getting better and better.
The Chinese did great with theirs, international didn't mean them according to the Americans
Point Nemo is also the location of Ry'leh - we should hope C'thul'hu doesn't get miffed with the rain of parts
ISS proposals have included splitting hardware off from the original modules but the harsh reality is that space fungus has spread throughout the entire core structure, just as it did on Mir and any modules disconnected will bring it to a new station, allowing that to be infested even faster
Metal eating fungus surviving & thriving on the inside AND OUTSIDE of your LEO space station isn't a good thing to consider
Metal fatigue is an issue but not nearly as much of a problem as the fungus
The ISS was lucky enough to be exactly passing over the tower one of the world trade center when it suddenly heated down to dust . And that it miraculously had the cupola packed with one time instrumentation with no other use for .
Artemis program and a new ISS? Feels great to see the end of a decade
I'm sad at the loss of the ISS but understand that it essentially comes down to wear and tear
space is hard and expensive... I just hope we don't have a huge gap where we don't have humans in orbit
Will there be elements of it that are kept on orbit for later use? Eg, O2/nitrogen, water, solar panels, stuff?
It costs so much to put mass into space, surely some of the base elements are still of use?