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While the debate on this What needs to be done with the International Space Station is stepping up, with a new report from NASA casting doubt on plans to commercialize it by 2025, the end result could be its intentional accidental landing In the ground. "Even if this eventuality is lacking, according to the Inspector General of NASA .
" In the future, NASA will have to decommission and desorb the ISS either in response to an emergency, either at the end of its use. life, "says the report. "However, the agency currently has no ability to ensure that the ISS will return to the Earth's atmosphere and land in a targeted location in the Pacific Ocean." South."
NASA, to his credit, started the job. However, even the most preliminary stages are tainted with diplomacy with the Russian Space Agency. The Inspector General says that in January 2017, NASA completed a draft plan, but "this plan has not been finalized and is pending review by Roscosmos." [19659006] And even this project is barely complete, with critical, unanswered questions, including the need for booster and survivability systems and sensors that would be needed to desorb the station in a controlled manner.
It takes time and money to crash a space station safely. "NASA estimates that a controlled re-entry or nominal desorbit of the ISS will take up to two years and will cost about $ 950 million," says the IG report
NASA estimates that the controlled start will take two years and will cost $ 950 million. The cost is so high that the extra thruster needed to push the station into the perfect position, allowing it to crush at "Point Nemo" in the deep Pacific. It is the most remote place on the planet and, for this reason, the location of a submarine spaceship cemetery.
And aiming is crucial. NASA estimates that 16% of the ISS would probably survive the burns and stresses of re-entry, between 53,500 and 173,250 pounds falling on the ground. Control-Moscow would direct the operation from the ground
"The environmental impacts should be minimal, as any liquid or toxic material should burn during the re-entry process," the report says. "However, some fragments of the return vehicle could have sufficient kinetic energy to cause damage to people and structures, including ships."
What would happen if there was a malfunction of urgency and that ISS had not two years to go down? This kind of thinking is morbid but necessary.The Inspector General sets the odds of a meteorite strike on the ISS that inflicts enough damage to cause a depressurization to 1 out of 120. In a scenario of Emergency, it would be about six months to crush the station safely. an empty part of the Earth
The chances of a meteoritic strike that endangers the ISS are 1 in 120.
If that were to happen, we would be in trouble because the global space community There is no plan of urgency. this would allow the simultaneous ignition of several Progress and Service Module engines needed for Deorbit emergency burning is not even loaded on board.
Another thing that is missing is enough fuel to direct the facility to a safe crash zone. eport points to the commercial space industry, which would have a surplus if the fuel if needed in an emergency situation. The report says that the agency should "develop options for obtaining additional US emergency commercial vehicle deorbitation thruster support."
The ISS, like any piece of machinery, is doomed to fail one day. And the wear and tear of spaceflight takes its toll. The IG report notes bleakly that "the United States and the Russian technical and structural feasibility studies have also highlighted the risk of equipment failure with the continuation of the operations of the I & # 39; ISS Beyond 2024. "
In the meantime, it is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain." The degradation of components, the manufacturers that are no longer in business and the technological changes that have occurred over the past 20 years on a single spacecraft in orbit as the ISS also present a risk of technological obsolescence of the material, "says the report.
The end of the ISS should be considered with more than one. Urgently now that its financial future is uncertain.The IG report has darkened NASA's plan to transfer the space station to commercial operators by 2025. "The transition from ISS to Private operation according to the calendar ac This is an important challenge to stimulate the private sector's interest in undertaking an extremely costly and complex undertaking. the report says. "Based on our audit work, we question the viability of NASA's current plans, particularly on the possibility of developing a business in low orbit on the proposed schedule."
on optimistic prospects for the industrialization of space. "In its ISS transition report, NASA includes several overly optimistic badumptions about the revenues and operating costs of a future private low-Earth-orbit platform that challenges the validity of the ISS. badysis, "says the report of the IG
. question of how it will go down if it is indispensable to answer. And quickly.
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