Russians looking to re-use their ISS modules

[earth_bound_misfit]

Link sent to me from my friends at MSA. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8064060.stm

Russia is making plans to detach and fly away its parts of the International Space Station when the time comes to de-orbit the rest of the outpost.

Hope they don't get upset and want their bits early :shock:
Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Instead of ditching the rest, maybe give the whole thing to them.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sell, not "give"

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

Capitalist!

 

[MarkStanaway]

This would be in keeping with the Russian tradition of never throwing away anything that may possibly have a future use.

I well remember while riding the Trans-Siberian back in the 70's seeing huge numbers of retired steam locomotives at sidings every few hundred kms. A lot of these were supplied under the old lend-lease arrangements of WW II but I believe most of them were cut up for scrap during the 90's.

I suspect they will sorely miss the power supplied by the US supplied truss solar array and will need to build one of their own. It is interesting that they will still be using the old 51.6 inclination orbit even though the new station will be serviced from the new Far Eastern launch facility at Vostochny.
I will follow developments with interest.

 

[dreada5]

BBC NEWS: Unlike the ISS, which was advertised primarily as a platform for scientific research, Russia's future space station, dubbed the Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex (OPSEK) would have the primary goal of supporting deep space exploration.

Behind the scenes, Russian engineers have drawn up ambitious plans for orbital stations around the Earth and the Moon, and eventually in the orbit of Mars. These would be linked by re-usable tugs, shuttling between them continuously to support the sustained exploration of the Solar System.

This sounds forward thinking to me. If humans intend to conduct sustained exploration of the solar system, we'll need to establish/maintain significant infrastructure and that has to start somewhere! Whilst it's so difficult getting hardware into LEO, can't keep building and then throwing away modules that have more plenty more years in them and can be used for other things.

 

[aphh]

Both ESA and Roskosmos seem to have ambitious plans, but it remains to be seen what will emerge. Mars 500, a full-length fully simulated mission to mars, for example, is one mission on the table right now.

 

[tadpoletriker]

I suspect that if the Vasimir plasma engine test on the ISS works,
there would be strong reasons to keep the station flying with it
and the the gyroscopes, even if unmanned. Not just the Russians but any station would
need something like it.

JohnB
:idea:

 

[trailrider]

Why in the name of the Twin Moons, do we Americans always have to throw things away?! So the ISS will be 20+ years old. So what???!!! There are B-52's and DC-3/C-47's still flying that are more than 50 years old! Sure they've been re-worked, re-fitted, and updated, but they haven't outlived their usefullness!

What NASA needs to do is make SURE that the COTS program results in a commercial capability to use and keep the ISS running for 50 years! Then lease or sell the thing to whoever can come up with the money and the capability to use it.

I recently returned from KSC where I went through the Apollo/Saturn display at the Visitors Center. There was a beautiful Saturn V laying on its side, in pieces! The justification for destroying the Saturn tooling was so we couldn't turn back from Shuttle in case the latter didn't work out. Well, the Shuttle did work out...more or less...but we could still use the lift capability of a Saturn V, especially since we are retiring the Space Shuttle...sooner or later, I guess.

I hope we don't get on with destroying the ET and SSME tooling before it is decided what we are going to use to get back to LEO and, if we do it, go back to the Moon!

Ad LEO! Ad Luna! Ad Ares! Ad Astra!

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

The justification for destroying the Saturn tooling was so we couldn't turn back from Shuttle in case the latter didn't work out.

Swap the words "Saturn" with Shuttle and "Shuttle" with Constellation and it sounds ominously familiar :x