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Sometime in the next decade, The The International Space Station will fall from orbit and falls into the Pacific Ocean. At least, that’s the plan NASA has for the aging space station that has helped fuel research and observational efforts for more than 20 years. But if NASA scraps the space station, what will replace the ISS? The plan seems to depend on other companies going into space at the moment.
NASA does not plan to launch another space station into orbit to base its operations on. At least, not the way the ISS worked. Although the ISS was a concerted effort by many nations to further research and space exploration, NASA hopes to piggyback commercial space stations as future ISS replacements.
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This huge set of plans is very nicely outlined by Will Sullivan Smithsonian MagazineWho detailed some of the ways NASA is working with companies like Axiom Space – the same company behind it NASA’s new space suit – To continue research efforts after the fall of the ISS. Of course, part of the big problem with companies building space stations is that they have to set up some sort of customer base to use them.
If NASA wants to use commercial space stations as ISS replacements, it needs to find a way to ensure that the companies that want to put the stations in orbit have a reason to do so. This is a bit tricky, as it involves determining how many space stations can orbit Earth at one time – we still have China’s Tiangong space station, and other countries want their own.
Apart from nationally based space stations, some major players are currently working towards building their own stations including Axiom Space, Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin and a joint operation between Voyager Space and NanoRux. Each company plans its approach to the station differently, so NASA could end up with a nice selection of ISS replacements to work with very well.
Of course, NASA still has plenty of other big things to do, including building a lunar surface gateway, which will come after the successful launches of the Artemis II and Artemis III missions later this decade.
Ultimately, if all goes according to plan, it won’t be difficult for NASA to replace the ISS with operations on another station. Of course, all of this depends heavily on Russia sticking around the ISS until it’s decommissioned in the 2030s. A quick removal of any Russian activity from the ISS would likely result in deorbit long ago, as Russia is responsible for several critical parts of the station’s current operations. operational work.
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