Graveyard orbits and the ISS

[farmerben]

The plan is to deorbit the ISS a few years from now and scatter the debris above the Pacific Ocean.  Wouldn't it be better to preserve it as a future museum piece?  

Currently an orbit 300 km above geosynchronous is considered a graveyard orbit.  Though the ISS being a unique piece could have its own new graveyard orbit at half that distance and be safely out of the way for centuries.  

What do you think about saving the ISS?

[AtomicTech]

That'd be awesome but it would be quite costly to move it and maintain it in its new orbit.

It'd almost be easier to go and disassemble the ISS and bring it back to Earth piece by piece!

[tater]

14 minutes ago, farmerben said:

The plan is to deorbit the ISS a few years from now and scatter the debris above the Pacific Ocean.  Wouldn't it be better to preserve it as a future museum piece?  

Currently an orbit 300 km above geosynchronous is considered a graveyard orbit.  Though the ISS being a unique piece could have its own new graveyard orbit at half that distance and be safely out of the way for centuries.  

What do you think about saving the ISS?

That would require around 600 tons of hydrolox (more of anything else).

[farmerben]

What about ion thrusters?  Argon gas is really cheap.  The station has plenty of solar electric power already.   Multiple little thrusters mean less stresses and torques on the structure.  

[tater]

3 minutes ago, farmerben said:

What about ion thrusters?  Argon gas is really cheap.  The station has plenty of solar electric power already.   Multiple little thrusters mean less stresses and torques on the structure.  

Unsure how many you'd need. Thrust is so low that the nonzero drag on ISS (atmospheric, solar pressure, etc) matters.

[farmerben]

The ISS masses 450,000 kgs and has 2500 kW of electric power approximately.  

Ion thrusters are good for approximately 35 mN of thrust per kW so 87,500 mN, giving the ISS an acceleration of 2x10^-7 m/s²

[RCgothic]

Old spacecraft shed pieces. It's safer to deorbit them.

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, AtomicTech said:

It'd almost be easier to go and disassemble the ISS and bring it back to Earth piece by piece!

It would be a waste of resources now since the STS program has been canceled.

[AtomicTech]

2 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

It would be a waste of resources now since the STS program has been canceled.

Maybe an overzealous billionare with a stainless steel rocket?

[steve9728]

Then if it really reaches the graveyard orbit, and one day it been hit by a space junk or something else...

[K^2]

14 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

It would be a waste of resources now since the STS program has been canceled.

Technically, Starship would have the capability with some modifications. And it wouldn't even take that many trips, especially if you're prepared to let go of some bulkier parts, like the solar panels...

I was going to suggest that @AtomicTech is exaggerating, but the more I think about it, the more I think he might be right. In principle, we have some projects for ions that could boost ISS to graveyard over time, but I don't think they've been tested.