Propose your ISS extensions here!

[Comrade Jenkens]

Could the SLS be used to launch much larger chunks of space station in theory? Could help when building a replacement.

[crazyewok]

Instead of proposing new modules for the ISS; I would start working on a new space station.

Got a spare 100 billion?

Thats the problem a whole new station would be rather costly.

I wouldnt be against it though, i personaly think NASA and ESA should have there budgets trippled.

[Klingon Admiral]

From the payload capacity sure, but I don't know how a rocket's structure would take 30m or something in extra height.

[crazyewok]

Actually, CAM was built by JAXA, although I don't know how the exact funding went. It was probably part of a barter agreement.

There was a lot of shuffling around after the Columbia accident. Flights were suspended, there were delays, budget overruns, and it became clear that some modules wouldn't fly. Sometimes you have to accept to cut off a leg to save the patient. The CAM module and the USOS habitation module took the hit. It was a tough decision, but which module of the ISS would you have sacrificed?

The prioritization of ISS science payloads is usually done by international science committees who have to work within a given budget and given launch slots. It's not a single "suit at NASA".

But yes, I agree that the cancelling of CAM was very unfortunate, because we know very little about partial gravity and its possible benefits.

If i had to choose the cupola and leonado modules.

Though to be honnest if NASA was better in its spending im sure they could have helped by putting more resources into the pot.

I mean they could have saved alot of money if they hadnt bothered with constellation program, why start a multi billion doller program if some half wit politician with a pen can just cancell it a few years later.?

[Aghanim]

Nice ideas in an ideal world, but where's the money going to come from?

#1 costs too much.

#2 is done on the Russian segment. Progress and ATV refuel the Zvezda service module.

#3 is too dangerous. Remember that anything in LEO reenters one day and things can go wrong.

#4 is already done in the various experiments on board.

#5 isn't possible. Giant lasers can burn holes, but they can't "annihilate".

Also, the ISS has been extended to 2024. There isn't enough time left in the ISS program to design and launch new modules.

Well after an afterthought some of my wording are purely misleading, for example laser couldn't annihilate space debris without consuming crazy amount of electricity and generating a lot of heat (wait, no one thought of that?) but it could ablate some part of it, deorbiting it, look up laser broom

We already have nuclear reactors on orbit, look up on TOPAZ and SNAP reactors, but I do agree that without station-keeping, LEO stuff will go down, how about timed and staged SRB burn to circularize the orbit in case of emergency core ejection?

And Centrifuge Accommodation Module

But, the biggest trouble is when I saw Nibb31 and crazyewok degenerating this thread for 2 pages into personal flame war like in the other ISS thread.

[Kryten]

We already have nuclear reactors on orbit, look up on TOPAZ and SNAP reactors, but I do agree that without station-keeping, LEO stuff will go down, how about timed and staged SRB burn to circularize the orbit in case of emergency core ejection?

Experience shows that that may not be reliable enough. The Soviets had a series of low-orbiting radar sats with nuclear reactors, and used exactly that concept to try and render them safe, but two of the reactor cores (out of 31 reaching orbit) ended up re-entering anyway.

[Capt. Hunt]

I read somewhere that stations like ISS would be too fragile to support a centrifuge. Also, there was enough fuss when JPL put an RTG in the Mars rover, how do you think the public would react to one in orbit? And I'm pretty sure that a spaceborne laser is against international treaties banning the weaponization of space, not to mention this isn't a Dale Brown book, so I don't think it'd be powerful enough to vaporize things.

[crazyewok]

I read somewhere that stations like ISS would be too fragile to support a centrifuge.

No one was planned. It was just cancelled for money reasons.

[Seret]

I'm pretty sure that a spaceborne laser is against international treaties banning the weaponization of space

There's no treaty that bans all weapons in space, just WMDs. Lasers would be fine, except that they generally make poor weapons. Ones big enough to pose a threat to anything are large and power hungry, which would make mounting them on a spacecraft or station impractical. You can get more stowed kills with less weight using conventional weapons.

Exactly what kind of system to use to remove space junk is an unanswered question.

[Themohawkninja]

Lots of small RCS modules to do away with the reliance of another vehicle for orbital decay compensation.

[Aghanim]

^Well that is good, but if its docked to the ISS the RCS will also need to provide delta V for ISS stationkeeping itself, right? If VASMIR still not available yet on the station

[Themohawkninja]

^Well that is good, but if its docked to the ISS the RCS will also need to provide delta V for ISS stationkeeping itself, right? If VASMIR still not available yet on the station

Right, the RCS modules would do all of the movements that the Russian ship does right now. VASIMR could be an option if power requirements aren't an issue.

[Kryten]

Right, the RCS modules would do all of the movements that the Russian ship does right now. VASIMR could be an option if power requirements aren't an issue.

The ISS already does a large proportion of it's station-keeping, but to do so it requires it's fuel topping-up regularly by the same Progresses you're trying to get rid of.

[KASASpace]

I would start investigating orbital Hydroponics, and have few modules, including but not limited to:

1. Transhab

2. Centrifuge

3. Raw material manufacturing (to test if orbital factories could actually be a possibility in the future)

4. Hydroponics Bay ( to grow food and recycle oxygen)

And all in an attempted closed-cycle life support system, separate from the main ISS system.

Edited January 19, 2014 by KASASpace

[dharak1]

I don't know how well hydroponics would work but aeroponics would work fairly well in 0g because it doesn't need a solid water body, only a fine mist.

[Flixxbeatz]

Cupola with a 270-degree view (larger than the current one). Or an extra new habitation module. Or an extra booster stage to put the ISS into a Geostationary Orbit

[NunsNAmmo]

Also, the ISS has been extended to 2024. There isn't enough time left in the ISS program to design and launch new modules.

Actually, there are a couple more modules that are scheduled to build onto the ISS, Nauka and Uzlovoy.

[asmi]

I would start investigating orbital Hydroponics, and have few modules, including but not limited to:

1. Transhab

2. Centrifuge

3. Raw material manufacturing (to test if orbital factories could actually be a possibility in the future)

4. Hydroponics Bay ( to grow food and recycle oxygen)

And all in an attempted closed-cycle life support system, separate from the main ISS system.

All of that (except for centrifuge) has already been done and/or is still happening to certain extent. First seed-to-seed full growth cycle in space was first completed onboard Mir station in 90s, current RSOS has greenhouse. Speaking of growing stuff - research onboard Mir have shown that growing crops not only gets food, but also have very positive psychological effect on the crew.

[Kryten]

Actually, there are a couple more modules that are scheduled to build onto the ISS, Nauka and Uzlovoy.

Nauka is simply very, very late (it was supposed to be up there in 2007), and Uzlovoy isn't intended to be part of the ISS; it's the first component of OPSEK.

[Nuke]

i would install 50 nuclear warheads. but thats just me.

[crazyewok]

i would install 50 nuclear warheads. but thats just me.

Why? Just why?

Im not some paranoid fool that hides from anything nuclear by any strecth BUT WHY! Why arm the ISS? If its for propulsion he ISS would be torn apart by nuclear pulse propulsion.

[NunsNAmmo]

Nauka is simply very, very late (it was supposed to be up there in 2007), and Uzlovoy isn't intended to be part of the ISS; it's the first component of OPSEK.

Uzlovoy is scheduled to be sent to the ISS first, to serve as a support module, and then later to be used in the construction of OPSEK after the ISS is concluded.

[Skyler4856]

A brand new Saturn V docked to the station with an Orion drive

[crazyewok]

A brand new Saturn V docked to the station with an Orion drive

HAHA I would love to see that too.

But it wont happen, no one has the guts to do it. The ignorant masses would not stand for it (all nuclear stuff being evil and bad blah blah blah)and it would be political sucide for any goverment. Though saying that china may surprise the world.

No for the next few decades we will only be pratting in Earths orbit with toy rockets.

[MK3424]

A docking node for more upcoming and recent spacecrafts (Orion,Dragon,Cygnuss,ATV,...)