NASA To Exit Space Station By 2028 In Move Toward Moon

[eridani]

http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2015/12/nasa-exit-space-station-2028-move-toward-moon

When the International Space Station becomes inoperative — in 2028 at the latest — NASA has decided it won’t be seeking a replacement.

At an advisory council meeting last week, according to Ars Technica, NASA’s chief of human spaceflight William Gerstenmaier announced that they’ll be moving out of the ISS in low Earth orbit and instead pursue cislunar space — the area of space surrounding the moon.

“We’re going to get out of ISS as quickly as we can,” Gerstenmaier said. “Whether it gets filled in by the private sector or not, NASA’s vision is we’re trying to move out.”

Any attempt to occupy low Earth orbit after that point would be in a much smaller, cheaper station shared by about 15 countries.

The ISS has so far been continuously occupied for 15 years, orbiting Earth at 5 miles per second. When decommissioned, NASA will likely deorbit the spacecraft and let Earth’s gravitational pull and atmosphere do the rest. Whatever is left over will likely fall into the Pacific Ocean.

Funding for ISS maintenance was guaranteed through 2024 by the recently passed SPACE Act, but the ISS could require funding for years after that date. By then, the ISS program’s annual budget could rise to $4 billion from the $3 billion it is now.

[bananas]

1. I don't like the sound of this. nt

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

2. The ISS debris will "likely fall into the Pacific Ocean"

or not.

[exboyfil]

3. They plan to push it

but your point is well taken since we are known for dropping space stations on continents (Skylab and Australia).

I personally would have like to have seen the entire ISS budget to have gone towards robotic missions to Mars and the outer planets' moons.

[phantom power]

4. I'd love to see NASA do some serious work on sustainable environments in space.

Start with sustaining closed system ecologies, but also industry and manufacturing. It's not sexy, but that's the stuff we need to learn how to do if we're going to live out there. We can do all this, and also support plenty of exploratory missions. This stuff is so fucking cheap compared to what we spend on endless wars and bankster bail-outs.

[Matthew28]

5. Find a cave on the moon

Find a cave or a "lava tube" on the moon and close it up. Fill it full of breathable air and make it the way you want it. Allow both nasa and the private sector to have a part in it.

That would last a very long time and would allow us to have a long term presence in space.

[Matthew28]

7. And close by a reflective 50 meter telescope!

That would be able to see extrasolar "earth" like planets