D
dreada5
Guest
After reading the following article someone posted on the forums, its obvious that RSA has plans to maximise the usage of ISS (or their part) to develop near-earth space industrialisation and support lunar missions.<br /><br />http://www.energia.ru/english/energia/news/news-2006/public_07-01.html<br /><br />Other than using the station to continue researching the long term effects of space on humans during extended voyages, what are NASA's plans for the completed ISS over the next 20 years?<br /><br />The station's use should be maximised for its remaining life which will depend on the useful life of ISS and how long can we continue to use/inhabit ISS before major, non-replaceable hardware/structures fail.<br /> <br />Will NASA only use/pay for the $100 billion station just for the next 10 years until it returns to the moon?!!<br /><br />Are the definite plans for future private space industry to have access to its facilities and provide transportation services to any interested parties?<br /><br />Will there be any interested parties considering Bigelow and Virgin/Branson seemed destined to setup their own shop in LEO within the next decade? <br /><br />If they are initially successful they could turn out to be the only game in (LEO) town to which the industry/public subscribes. What then for ISS?<br /><br />Discuss...