Space flights|Commercial gamblers are now expected in Earth’s orbit. In place of the ISS, a station orbiting the Moon, Gateway, will rise.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The end of the space station ISS is approaching. Its last astronaut will turn off the lights perhaps in 2030.
US billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is building a ship that will push or tow the ISS into the Pacific Ocean.
The price of the termination is approximately 800 million euros.
Decommissioned spaceships are usually directed to a remote location in the Pacific Ocean, Point Nemo.
Earth globe orbiting two space stations, a fairly new station for the Chinese Tiangong and the aging International Space Station ISS.
The largest sponsor of the ISS is the US space agency NASA. Now the station’s time is coming to an end.
The ISS has been receiving astronauts and cosmonauts since 2000.
After that year, at least one person from Earth has lived and lived in space.
The United States and NASA have led the construction and operation of the ISS station. Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan have supporting roles.
Western parties have promised to finance the station until 2030. Russia has promised to be involved at least until 2028.
NASA already decided in 2022 that the end of the station is approaching.
Nasa has considered the turn of the decade as the final limit. The station’s last astronaut will turn off the lights, perhaps in 2030.
The station is so big – the size of a football field – that you can’t just drive it down into the atmosphere. It may not burn completely to ash in the atmosphere.
The largest piece of space junk in history is therefore diverted to the Pacific Ocean, as far away from human habitation as possible.
NASA announced on Wednesday that the US billionaire Elon Musk and his space company SpaceX builds and assembles a ship that literally does the heavy lifting.
SpaceX needs to build a spacecraft capable of towing or pushing the 430-ton station down and toward the Pacific Ocean.
The price of the operation has been estimated at approximately 843 million dollars, or just under 788 million euros.
ISS orbits the Earth once in 90 minutes. The height of the station’s track has been kept at around 400 kilometers.
Space engineers say the lab is still structurally stable. However, plans must be made to dispose of it now.
Nasa explored different options for destroying the station.
The ISS could have been dismantled and the intact parts used in a new generation space station. Another idea was to give it to a commercial company that would maintain it.
All options cost a lot. They also involve legal issues
“This decision supports NASA’s plans for commercial projects,” said NASA’s director of space operations Ken Bowersox in his statement, says the BBC.
NASA nor SpaceX have yet released details about the ship that will tow or push the station toward the Pacific Ocean.
However, a lot of power is required from the craft to guide the station down from the upper atmosphere to the right place and the right time.
Otherwise, some parts of the ISS could survive the heat of the atmosphere and fall to Earth where it hurts, maybe on buildings and people.
Decommissioned spaceships are usually diverted to the most remote location possible in the Pacific Ocean. It bears a name Point Nemo.
Point Nemo is west of Chile, more than 2,500 kilometers from the nearest island or strip of land.
NASA hopes that the various private space gamblers will now begin to implement their plans for the space station. Many companies have ready-made plans, at least on paper.
The focus of NASA and other western space agencies is slowly shifting to the project where the lunar orbit rises a new space station, Gateway.
In the 2030s, Gateway will be a stepping stone for astronauts to the Moon and elsewhere in space.
#Space #flights #Private #SpaceX #building #ship #destroy #ISS #space #station #2030s
