The article lists the achievements of ISS, notamment progress toward sustainable life support systems. There is also the aging of pressurized structures in a vacuum, then there's the psychology of a small group in a space environment. Importantly, the ISS provided the springboard for commercial cargo and crewed flight that is on the point of becoming interplanetary.
However, it may be fair to ask if the continuous presence of a few people in a microgravity environment has somehow become a goal in itself?
When talking of 25 years, then the lifetime cost ≈ ($100 billion?) and the daily cost ≈ $100 B /(25*365.25) =
$11 M /day. should be mentioned, the opportunity cost also.
Is continuous presence a necessary step on the path toward an expanding presence of hundreds then thousands of people in a low-gravity lunar/planetary environment?
Supposing that between ISS and its successors, a short break were to occur in which the US or maybe even China to have nobody in space. Would this hinder the expansion of human civilization across the solar system?
If better choices could have been made by applying different criteria, then what could be improved on the Artemis project to make it more effective in attaining its long term goal?
The article lists the achievements of ISS, notamment progress toward sustainable life support systems. There is also the aging of pressurized structures in a vacuum, then there's the psychology of a small group in a space environment. Importantly, the ISS provided the springboard for commercial cargo and crewed flight that is on the point of becoming interplanetary.
However, it may be fair to ask if the continuous presence of a few people in a microgravity environment has somehow become a goal in itself?
When talking of 25 years, then the lifetime cost ≈ ($100 billion?) and the daily cost ≈ $100 B /(25*365.25) = $11 M /day. should be mentioned, the opportunity cost also.
Is continuous presence a necessary step on the path toward an expanding presence of hundreds then thousands of people in a low-gravity lunar/planetary environment?
Supposing that between ISS and its successors, a short break were to occur in which the US or maybe even China to have nobody in space. Would this hinder the expansion of human civilization across the solar system?
If better choices could have been made by applying different criteria, then what could be improved on the Artemis project to make it more effective in attaining its long term goal?
If you’re 25 years old or younger, people have been living and working in space every minute of your life.
True. But as regards progress toward future expansion, is continuous space presence the best metric?
Sometimes its better to take a step back to leap forward.