How Long Can the ISS Last? 112
R3d M3rcury writes with the story that "NASA and Boeing, along with other nations, are studying the feasibility of keeping the International Space Station in orbit until 2020 and possibly until 2028 — the 30 year anniversary of the launch of the first module." From the article: "To assess the long-term structural health of the station, Boeing engineers developed detailed computer models based on NASA's projected use -- the expected stresses caused by future dockings, reboosts, crew activity and thermal cycles -- and combined that with actual data from on-board accelerometers and strain gauges. ... "What we're looking at is theoretical crack growth," Pamela McVeigh, the engineer in charge of the Boeing structural analysis in Houston, told CBS News. "So the failure mode would be you'd have a crack beginning, probably (at) a bolt hole, and the crack would grow to another edge. So you'd lose like a flange on a C-beam, or an I-beam. The stiffness of your structure would then change, the bolt hole you that you were growing the crack out of, now that bolt wouldn't be effective."
Re:I seriously doubt we'd build the ISS now (Score:1, Informative)
ISS developed around a design that emerged under Clinton (option A, aka Alpha), which followed on from the Freedom Space Station work, which itself followed from the "Space Station '84" project that was sold to Reagan.
Where on Earth did you get the idea that NASA wasn't interested in a space station?
Re:Why not use it as a site to build the next one? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where on earth? I'll tell you where (Score:4, Informative)
Actually there was excessive atmospheric heating that brought it down early. But even still, in the post Vietnam era every NASA program was being massively cut and NASA didn't know how to react to that.
Re:Other nations? (Score:4, Informative)
Boeing and NASA are from the USA. The other contributors to the ISS are from other nations
Re:Why not use it as a site to build the next one? (Score:4, Informative)
China is building a space station. They would have joined the ISS project if the US hadn't blocked them. It's basically US pride that is holding everything back.
It wasn't just the U.S. government that wasn't interested in having China join. There is also a concern by both Russia and America about the quality of any potential modules and spacecraft that would be attaching itself to the ISS in any docking procedure... and it was Roscosmos that would have taken the largest burden for such activities as the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft would have most easily docked with the Russian segment rather than conforming to the American docking ports.
It was much more than pride at stake here, and while NASA officials were certainly the most vocal in opposition to Chinese participation, there were many other obstacles to getting Chinese astronauts on the ISS. If anything, it was also Chinese pride that sort of shot the whole project down too as they didn't want to be treated as a junior partner in the endeavor as well.
If the ESA and Roscosmos had wanted the Chinese Space Agency involved in the ISS, I'm sure it would have happened. There are other countries involved besides just Russia and America.
Re:Do we seem a little too risk averse these days? (Score:5, Informative)
Bah!
DeltaV to deorbit ISS - ~180 m/s
DeltaV to move ISS to L4/L5 - ~3160 m/s.
Preview, you fool, always preview!