After over 20 years in orbit, our beloved International Space Station is set to retire
in 2030!
But remember please don’t shoot the messenger here!
Like its epic debut, the ISS’s final performance will be just as mind blowing.
So how exactly do you decommission a football -field-sized structure without hitting anything?
But before we get to that, I know you must all be wondering why NASA and its partners
decided to decommission the ISS now.
Well, the ISS is starting to show its age.
I mean think about it: it’s been in a constant state of operation since November 2000, it
orbits the Earth every 90 minutes traveling at 8 km/sec, and has hosted over 3000 research
investigations from 108 countries.
Not to mention it’s in one of the most dangerous environments known to humankind, in constant
danger of being struck by debris!
Based on evaluations, the ISS is expected to continue operations until 2028.
Some major reasons for retirement were the operational cost, which is roughly $4 billion
per year, and limited onboard capabilities.
On top of that, the ISS requires multiple reboost maneuvers each year to keep it from
crashing back down to Earth.
So in 2030, when it’s finally time to decommission the ISS, why can’t we let it just float
out in space forever?
Well there’s a long list of reasons we don’t want that.
One of them is because of the Kessler Syndrome, which is the concept that even the smallest
fragment of space debris traveling at speeds up to 28 million km/hr can be a catalyst to
a much larger chain reaction.
But luckily, engineers have a plan to avoid that catastrophic domino effect by harnessing
the Earth’s gravitational pull.
By slowly reducing the operational altitude of the ISS over several years, engineers will
strategically position its reentry point over a region known as the South Pacific Oceanic
Uninhabited Area.
A.k.a.
where satellites go to die.
Known as Point Nemo, this area in the Pacific Ocean is quite literally in the middle of
nowhere.
Believe it or not, the closest humans to Point Nemo are the crew members of the ISS right
now!
But the entire satellite will not crash into the ocean, in fact, experts expect most of
the station to burn up in the atmosphere during reentry, with only select parts making it
to Point Nemo.
And this location is optimal because it's within the South Pacific Gyre, a large system
of rotating ocean currents that keeps this region fairly absent of oceanic life, in case
anyone was concerned about any sea life.
But The ISS won’t be alone!
It will join over 250 others dating back to NASA’s Skylab in 1979 and Russia’s MIR
Space Station in 2001.
This is the start of a new era for space exploration and crewed missions beyond the
Earth’s orbit.
NASA hopes to maintain operations in Low Earth Orbit by introducing a new private space station
before the ISS retires.
In early 2021, NASA selected three companies, Blue Origin, Nanoracks LLC, and Northrop Grumman,
to develop the next generation of commercial space stations.
Nanoracks currently has their sights set on 2027 as the first flight of Starlab, their
new commercial space station.
As for the ISS, the world is deeply saddened to see what some would call their first experience
with human space travel.
But all good things come to an end no matter how bitter-sweet.
And with other projects not too far behind, it seems like we’re already headed toward
continuing the legacy of the ISS by going even further than we’ve ever been before.
So what was your favorite thing about the ISS?
Let us know down in the comments.
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