<p><font color="#800080">I'm just curious if anyone knows the technical limitations that would keep the international space station from being converted into a deep space exploration vehicle? Posted by therocketjohn</font></p><p>In addition to the technical limitations already mentioned here. Theres the problem of cost and will. The U.S. lost the will for deep space exploration after Apollo due largely to the high cost associated with it. Despite the fact that those high costs are dwarfed by government spending on such wasteful affairs as the S&L scandal, deficit spending, and currently Iraq...the civil rebuild adventure.</p><p>If costs were put in proper perspective, we wouldn't need to turn an existing spacecraft not designed for deep space exploration into a deep exploration vehicle. We'd simply build the vehicle best optimized for that task. </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>