NASA plans to deorbit the ISS sometime around 2030. Building something the size of the ISS in orbit is a huge undertaking and NASA keeps talking about wanting to build new space stations or a moon base, so why not leave the ISS in space and reuse it rather than literally throw the whole thing away?
In: Planetary Science
Have you ever stayed in a hotel in some smaller out of the way place, and it obviously hasnt had any serious renovation, updating, or serious overhaul since like the 80s? Things are “clean”, but everything’s just worn and dingy and chipped, furniture and carpet are worn, maybe there’s a bit of a smell of too much pine-sol and antiseptic? And all the built-in electronics and appliances are all just old and dated, and don’t really work with modern tech (no wireless charging pads built into the alarm clock, etc)?
The ISS is like that. It’s been up there for a LONG time, many many many years longer than it was ever designed to. It’s seen some additions and updates over the years, but a lot of it is just old and dated and worn. It’s getting tot he point that to keep it up there and useable, it would need a LOT of very very expensive updating and overhaul. To the point that it would probably be a lot more hassle and a lot more expensive to upgrade and update it, than it would be to just let it de-orbit and replace it with something new and modern and more efficient. At some point even your old trusty Honda Civic with 350,000 miles just gets too expensive to keep on the road, and it’d be cheaper to just replace it with something newer. Of course, that brings up the issue of, well whats replacing it? And right now the answer is… nothing. But there are some plans in the works, so who knows?
Latest Answers