Somehow This Seems Fitting Tonight... 'International Space Station To Be 'Sunk' After 2020'

International Space Station to be 'sunk' after 2020
AFP – Tue, Jul 26, 2011

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Russia and its partners plan to plunge the International Space Station (ISS) into the ocean at the end of its life cycle after 2020 so as not to leave space junk, its space agency said on Wednesday.

"After it completes its existence, we will be forced to sink the ISS. It cannot be left in orbit, it's too complex, too heavy an object, it can leave behind lots of rubbish," said deputy head of Roskosmos space agency Vitaly Davydov. "Right now we've agreed with our partners that the station will be used until approximately 2020," he said in comments released on Wednesday.

Space junk is becoming an increasingly serious headache. A piece of space debris narrowly missed the space station last month in a rare incident that forced the six-member crew to scramble to their rescue craft.

The ISS, which orbits 350 kilometres (220 miles) above Earth, is a sophisticated platform for scientific experiments bringing together space agencies from Russia, the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada. Launched in 1998, the ISS was initially expected to remain in space for 15 years until an agreement was reached to keep it operating through 2020.

By going into a watery grave, the ISS will repeat the fate of its predecessor space station Mir, which Russia sank in the Pacific Ocean in 2001 after 15 years of service.

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Link: http://news.yahoo.com/international-space-station-sunk-2020-002250127.html

:shrug:

:beer:

Oh, right....



Never mind

It would cost more than the cost of the space station to bring down even with the space shuttle still working.

Leaving it in space would just add to the considerable amount of bullshit scrap we have up there already, and the rocketry needed to send it into space would leave bullshit scrap as well. Dropping into the Pacific wouldn't be any worse than the gazillion other vessels that have sank beneath those waves.

Unless there's something other than metals, which I doubt.

"... it's too complex, too heavy an object, it can leave behind lots of rubbish,"

Sounds like our ship of state at this point in time.

But hopefully, we're not quite sunk yet.

:shrug:

:hi:

Now imagine you can't just pop the hood and fix something that broke. The space station not being completed on time was really because of the Columbia disaster. I am a much bigger fan of unmanned exploration. NASA has done some amazing work and it costs far less. Unless we are willing to commit $100 billion a year to space exploration there is really no point in sending up people.