NASA wants to prolong ISS operation till 2028-2030

[MinimumSky5]

Yeah, no. The station isn't built for particularly high levels of thrust, and even with a low energy transfer, I highly doubt that it could be done. Also, even if NASA finally get SLS working, how are the Russians going to get to the station if its at the moon? Something tells me that they will want to keep an independent method to get to the ISS.

[Cassel]

18 minutes ago, MinimumSky5 said:

Yeah, no. The station isn't built for particularly high levels of thrust, and even with a low energy transfer, I highly doubt that it could be done. Also, even if NASA finally get SLS working, how are the Russians going to get to the station if its at the moon? Something tells me that they will want to keep an independent method to get to the ISS.

Russians can pay for Orion flights as the US pays for Soyuz.
If Russia turns out to be a technologically underdeveloped partner, can ESA or China always take their place? ESA builds a service module for Orion, it probably would have flights at bonus prices ;-)

The only question is whether ISS can or can not function without Russian modules?

[magnemoe]

7 hours ago, tater said:

Most serious microgravity experiments would really need to be free fliers I think to avoid all the vibration of the ISS (because people are bouncing around).

I don't mind the idea of a station money wise, I just think we'd do better to start fresh.

Crystal growth and similar who can not take vibrations has an issue on an space station. You could however insulate it. have the experiment float inside an larger box who would cancel out small vibrations. 
This however is just one discipline. 
Dragon lab or similar should work, Russia has the same setup and has even flew some missions but its less efficient than an space station as you basically do an IIS resupply mission to run one or at best a few experiments. 

[Cheif Operations Director]

4 hours ago, Cassel said:

It might be cheaper to fly ISS into the moon's orbit instead of building a completely new station? Of course, if its modules can work for several years.

I concur

[Racescort666]

7 hours ago, MinimumSky5 said:

Yeah, no. The station isn't built for particularly high levels of thrust, and even with a low energy transfer, I highly doubt that it could be done. Also, even if NASA finally get SLS working, how are the Russians going to get to the station if its at the moon? Something tells me that they will want to keep an independent method to get to the ISS.

On that note, some time ago I calculated how much fuel it would take to get ISS to a lunar orbit (4.5km/s dV). You're looking in the ballpark of 775 tons of propellant which is in the ballpark of a standard orange tank Space Shuttle External Tank full in orbit with 1 SSME pushing the lot at a whopping 0.19g of acceleration. The scale of how much fuel is required for this well beyond anything that we've attempted and certainly requires in-space cryogenic propellant transfer and storage.

[Cheif Operations Director]

3 hours ago, Racescort666 said:

On that note, some time ago I calculated how much fuel it would take to get ISS to a lunar orbit (4.5km/s dV). You're looking in the ballpark of 775 tons of propellant which is in the ballpark of a standard orange tank Space Shuttle External Tank full in orbit with 1 SSME pushing the lot at a whopping 0.19g of acceleration. The scale of how much fuel is required for this well beyond anything that we've attempted and certainly requires in-space cryogenic propellant transfer and storage.

Well the technology would be useful for later so although Maby not worth it for ISS the technology will be helpful and worthwhile

[Cassel]

4 hours ago, Racescort666 said:

On that note, some time ago I calculated how much fuel it would take to get ISS to a lunar orbit (4.5km/s dV). You're looking in the ballpark of 775 tons of propellant which is in the ballpark of a standard orange tank Space Shuttle External Tank full in orbit with 1 SSME pushing the lot at a whopping 0.19g of acceleration. The scale of how much fuel is required for this well beyond anything that we've attempted and certainly requires in-space cryogenic propellant transfer and storage.

Ion drive then? :-)

 

[tater]

2 hours ago, Cassel said:

Ion drive then? :-)

 

The resultant thrust would need to exceed the drag at that altitude.

 

Oops, wrong window.

Edited September 25, 2018 by tater

[kerbiloid]

Solar sails between the ISS trusses, slowly rising it up to the Moon..

[Jaelommiss]

10 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Solar sails between the ISS trusses, slowly rising it up to the Moon..

I suspect that increased drag at its current altitude would overcome any potential gains from a solar sail. Might work if you raise its orbit before deploying it, though. 

 

Edit: Wikipedia (yeah, I know) says that drag and solar pressure are equivalent at roughly 800km, so we'll need to boost the station higher than that for it to work.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Jaelommiss

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

Up to 800 km - by oars.