That 2024 paper<\/a> looked at several alternatives to NASA\u2019s plans to deorbit the station at the end of its life, including boosting it into a higher, longer-lived orbit.\n<\/p>\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of delta-V and the debris environment is pretty bad,\u201d he said. That paper estimated that moving the ISS, currently in a orbit a little more than 400 kilometers high, to one between 640 and 680 kilometers, which would keep it in orbit for a century, would require between 18,900 and 22,300 kilograms of propellant. That higher orbit also has more debris, creating the risk of collisions that could cause \u201ccomplete fragmentation\u201d of the station and jeopardizing the safety of low Earth orbit.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe same analysis, he said, also ruled out the partial disassembly of the station to either deorbit pieces of it individually or return them to Earth. \u201cAny disassembly effort to safely disconnect and return individual components (such as modules) would face significant logistical and financial challenges,\u201d the NASA paper noted.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ll just speak personally: I would love to see this thing in a museum, I really would,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not possible in a fiscally responsible, I suppose, or technologically responsible way, to preserve big chunks of this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThough large modules are not feasible for return, NASA has engaged with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and other organizations to develop a preservation plan for some smaller items from the space station,\u201d the NASA paper stated.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe Smithsonian has given us a list of desires,\u201d said Ryan Landon, director of NASA\u2019s ISS research integration office at the Johnson Space Center. She didn\u2019t elaborate on the contents of that list.\n<\/p>\n
Cargo Dragon missions won\u2019t be possible once the USDV is installed, Landon said. \u201cSo, our last cargo home will be about the middle of 2029.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nOne challenge will be finding the space to bring those items back. Today, only SpaceX\u2019s cargo Dragon can return significant amounts of cargo from the ISS, with small amounts available on Crew Dragon and Soyuz. Other cargo spacecraft\u2014Cygnus, HTV-X, and Progress\u2014deliver cargo to the station but burn up on reentry.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe pace of cargo missions will also slow as the station nears retirement. A key milestone will be the launch of the US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), a modified Dragon that will dock to the station about 18 months before deorbit. It will use one of the two docking ports available to both commercial crew vehicles and cargo Dragon spacecraft. With the other port used by a Crew Dragon or Starliner spacecraft for the crew, there will be no space for a cargo Dragon.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOnce those two vehicles are onboard,\u201d she said of the USDV and commercial crew vehicle, \u201cwe will no longer have a vehicle that can return. So, our last cargo home will be about the middle of 2029.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThat adds to the urgency for decisions on what to preserve from the ISS. However, historians and curators will be competing for space on those cargo missions with scientists seeking to return experiments as they maximize the station\u2019s research in its final years, along with engineers who need to bring equipment back for maintenance or reuse.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat\u2019ll be an interesting discussion,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
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A ten-person crew on the International Space Station shares a dinner together earlier this month. (credit: NASA)<\/p>\n
\nResearchers have made clear they want to use the ISS as long as they can. \u201cWe seek to continue to utilize the International Space Station right up until that last moment when Ryan turns the lights out. So, there will be drivers to maintain as much science capacity on those final return vehicles as we can,\u201d said Michael Roberts, chief scientist of the ISS National Lab.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut, it\u2019s not lost on anyone that there is tremendous scientific knowledge, as well as historical knowledge, that can be retained from the return of some of that instrumentation,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
\nThere is, at least, awareness of the need to start planning for preserving items from the ISS. \u201cThe ISS is coming on my radar,\u201d said Brian Odom, NASA\u2019s chief historian. \u201cIt is the history of the agency\u2019s human spaceflight for a very long time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHowever, it\u2019s not clear there is a formal process for determining what can be brought back and how. \u201cThere has to be a very concentrated, intentional effort by someone,\u201d said Landon. That individual must be involved in discussions about cargo logistics and can thus advocate for bringing back items when space becomes available on a cargo return mission.\n<\/p>\n
\nThat includes \u201ctalking to the crews about things to look for and having crews think about heritage while they\u2019re up there,\u201d she said. \u201cThe crew is amazing at packing those bags. There is always space somewhere.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt will be a challenge\u201d determining responsibility for preserving ISS heritage, Keaton said. \u201cThe space station program, as currently constituted, is focused on flying the space station.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Odom urged those working on the program \u201cto be their own historian\u201d and think about how to preserve records. \u201cYour work could disappear forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf protecting ISS heritage is something Americans or the US government, or certain portions thereof, care about, that has to be expressed though policy channels. It costs money, it costs time and effort not currently being given to those kinds of things,\u201d noted Gabriel Swiney, director of the Office of Space Commerce\u2019s policy, advocacy, and international division. \u201cIf people want to do that, there has to be some organized effort to do so.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nPreserving ISS heritage goes beyond hardware on the station today that could be brought back. A big focus will be on preserving physical and electronic records of the station\u2019s development and operations, as well as the oral histories of those involved in the station.\n<\/p>\n
\nThat includes how crews actually used the station versus how it was designed to be used. \u201cArchaeology is not necessarily about the distant past,\u201d said Justin Walsh, a professor of art history, archaeology, and space studies at Chapman University. \u201cIt\u2019s really about understanding human activity, understanding human culture, understanding adaptation to environments, and specifically doing that through the lens of material culture.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nWalsh is the co-principal investigator on an ISS archaeology project that included documenting six areas on the station daily for two months to see how those areas were used by crews, including in \u201cunexpected and unanticipated\u201d ways, such as one astronaut who stored their toiletry kit on a wall in a high-traffic area of the station, illustrating the challenges of storing items on the ISS. \u201cThose kinds of things tell a story that is really important for us to understand about what it means to live in space at our current level of technology.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThat heritage can be documented in many ways. He pointed to the \u201cISS in Real Time\u201d<\/a> website that brings together photos, videos, transcripts of space-to-ground calls, and other documentation from nearly every day of ISS operations.\n<\/p>\n\nHe added he\u2019s looking for other ways to document the station, including working with NASA to sample smells in different parts of the ISS to understand the chemicals that create it. \u201cWe would actually be able to know what the chemical composition of the atmosphere is to a degree that we could recreate smells for exhibits in science museums,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n(\u201cUnfortunately, the first time I crossed over from STS-126, it even smelled like a submarine, which is not a nice thing to say about any place,\u201d Stephen Bowen, a submarine officer who became a NASA astronaut, said of the station during another panel.)\n<\/p>\n
\nDespite that rich record, though, historians like Odom are worried they will lose valuable insights into the ISS because of ephemeral electronic records and fading memories.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe might know about Apollo at any minute than we\u2019ll know about ISS in five years,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way the bureaucracy created a record during Apollo was pretty substantial.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe urged those working on the program \u201cto be their own historian\u201d and think about how to preserve records of the decisions they made. \u201cDon\u2019t think that somebody else is going to do it for you,\u201d he said. \u201cYour work could disappear forever.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not big person on holding things,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cThe biggest legacy, and what we should be preserving, is to continue to fly similar missions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nRegarding physical preservation of the station, some panelists got creative and suggested that private astronaut missions might be able to help, \u201ctaking down that they can,\u201d said Todd Mosher, scholar in residence at the University of Colorado Engineering Management Program. Roberts called on historians to buy a SpaceX Dragon mission \u201cand load it up with whatever you want.\u201d (Perhaps overestimating the financial resources of historians.)\n<\/p>\n
\nAsked what one object from the ISS they would like to preserve, panelists offered answers ranging from the station\u2019s cupola to the table that served as a communal dining space on the ISS to the station\u2019s microbiome. Robert Pearlman, editor of collectSPACE, suggested something large enough that could be cut into small pieces and then mounted on cards or melted into medals \u201cjust so that everyone who remembers the space station, everyone who had a good memory of it over the last 25+ years, can have a piece of it if they want.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nAnd what about Bowen, who spent half a year on the ISS in 2023 after three short-duration visits during the final years of the shuttle program? \u201cI\u2019m not big person on holding things,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest legacy, and what we should be preserving, is to continue to fly similar missions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com<\/a>) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews<\/a>. He also operates the Spacetoday.net<\/a> web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.<\/p>\nNote: we are now moderating comments. There will be a delay in posting comments and no guarantee that all submitted comments will be posted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Space Station is scheduled for retirement, and a destructive reentry, as soon as 2030. (credit: NASA)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-570470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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