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Space Forum / Shuttle / February 2008ISS's purpose?
They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? All these billions of dollars being spent on building it, are they going to come to fruition? diy-newby formuleerde de vraag : > They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. > > What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? All these billions of dollars > being spent on building it, are they going to come to fruition? The purpose?? Mainly to do some research of any kind, like medical, materials, astronomy etc... Even today there are many examples of materials developed specially for space things (think solar panels, titanium, and even a 'tempur'-matrass) André > diy-newby formuleerde de vraag : >> They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > André Why does this 'research' need doing in space? Couldn't all these billions be spent on medical research on earth. diy-newby heeft ons zojuist aangekondigd : >> diy-newby formuleerde de vraag : >>> They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Why does this 'research' need doing in space? Couldn't all these billions be > spent on medical research on earth. With the absence of gravity, materials behave differently than back on Earth. An (very simple) example: here on Earth, water and oil do not mix. the reason for that is the water component is heavier than the oil component (see the oil dumped at the oceans, it floats atop of water). The the lack of gravity, the mixing of (the same example) water and oil is a lot easier. The same counts for other materials to produce things like medicine etc. André =?ISO-8859-15?Q?Andr=E9,_PE1PQX?= <andre_geenviagra@pe1pqx.eu> wrote in news:mn.9b3b7d82310b11d8.58901@pe1pqx.eu: [snip] While it's good that you are attempting to note the benefits of space research, density difference has little to do with why oil and water won't mix so that example is, ahem, exceedingly poor. Perhaps a practical explanation for ISS is that it is a step on the road to learning to live in space. For example reliable oxygen generation is still a problem that needs to be solved. Of course the driver behind that is the desire or "need" to explore. Sure, spend money on various terrestrial research but also continue to explore the universe. Humans are curious animals and I'd rather see that curiosity fed than stifled.  Signature--- there should be a "sig" here > diy-newby formuleerde de vraag : >> They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Even today there are many examples of materials developed specially for > space things (think solar panels, titanium, and even a 'tempur'-matrass) That's sort of circular reasoning. > André SignatureGreg Moore SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available! Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html Greg D. Moore (Strider) stelde de volgende uitleg voor : >> diy-newby formuleerde de vraag : >>> They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > That's sort of circular reasoning. Explain please?? >> André > What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? There are 3 purposes in my opinion: -Learn to live in space (0g effects on humans, daily life, repairs, perhaps even surgery). -Learn to build stuff for space. Not only the mechanics of assembling it, but also the ability to design something which will work reliably in 0g and in the harsh environments (sun's heat, sun's radiation, cold etc). Consider all the trials and tribulations of the russian O2 generator. If humans are to travel far in space, they need reliable O2 generators. It isn't so obvious to electrolyse water in 0g since the bubbles don't rise out of the liquid. (same for all systems involving water.). -Build a structure that allows you to perform some work. This is the research the media discuss about the ISS. Like watching crystals grow. Most of this stuff is really boring, but *MIGHT* lead to some fantastic discovery. Many discoveries are accidental or side effect of research to do something else. > > What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > discovery. �Many discoveries are accidental or side effect of research > to do something else. face facts ISS has turned into just a make work project, with every cost overrun the first thing to be cut is science............ > > What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > discovery. Many discoveries are accidental or side effect of research > to do something else. This is about as good a description as I've seen. /dps > > > What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > - Show quoted text - I agree. John really does his homework for the ISS, and he shares his knowledge. It sure would be great if someone (other than myself) would post an equally good description of the hydrazine hazards associated with operating the present Space Transportation System (e.g., Challenger/ Columbia), for comparison with the effects and potential effects of those same hazards in our unmanned systems. JTM On Feb 19, 8:24 pm, "max...@mission51l.com" <max...@mission51l.com> wrote: > It sure would be great if someone (other than myself) would post an > equally good description of the hydrazine hazards associated with > operating the present Space Transportation System (e.g., Challenger/ > Columbia), for comparison with the effects and potential effects of > those same hazards in our unmanned systems. No difference. Gemini and apollo used them too On Feb 19, 7:37 pm, behlin...@gmail.com wrote: > On Feb 19, 8:24 pm, "max...@mission51l.com" <max...@mission51l.com> > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > No difference. Gemini and apollo used them too Thanks. We finally found something we agree about. More of it in a manned mission, but lots fewer missions. What are the *real* chances (in the next 10 years) of replacing hydrazine with something completely safe, in all our space systems? I've read here some PhD engineers (from Canada, some time back) who strongly believe that is doable. JTM If we ever decide to do a Mars manned mission, we need to know about long term zero G exposure to humans. And ways to mitigate or manage it. ISS will get us some of that. ISS is still under the Van Allen belts and is somewhat protected from lots of radiation you find further out in space, but that can be good in that you can separate that out from just zero G. > They may sound like a troll question, but it is not. > > What exactly is the purpose / role of the ISS? All these billions of > dollars being spent on building it, are they going to come to fruition? It serves as a jobs program for engineers and vote-buying mechanism for (con)gresspeople. 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