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Originally Posted by bluesdave
I don't remember what the official mission statement was for the ISS, but at the time I was also *against* it. Interestingly, I cannot see a mission statement on the ISS Home Page. |
ISS mission statement will not be on a NASA web site. Its purpose was to create a project that both US and Russia could cooperate on. Remember, this was end of the cold war. America needed a project that could build trust between these cold war adversaries. Winner - ISS. Back then it was called Space Station Freedom or something like that. Its design was so defective that Freedom was on the verge of being scrapped. Project name was changed to International Space Station to represent its new mission.
So why no science? ISS was hyped as a science project. But as eventually leaked to the press; even Freedom would require so much maintenance as to leave no time for science.
Reason for Mission Control in Russia? Again to promote trust. ISS intended only for political reasons.
One final part: Russian and American sections can be separated. But only the Russian part has an IMU and other functions to fly independently.
Meanwhile, Russia was also supposed to supply source code for that station so that Americans could learn how ISS works. Last I heard (and that was many years ago), Russia still had not provided that code many years after it was supposed to be delivered.
But again, ISS is not for science. ISS was created for politics. We can appreciate why ISS was created. But again, the 'by far' largest part of NASA's budget is attached to a political trophy. Now we are talking about man to Mars only for political reasons. What is worse - that Mars mission (and Moonbase) is now cannibalizing the little science that NASA does.
Like it or not: Shuttle, ISS, and now Man to Mars (and a Moonbase) all only for political reasons; at the expense of science and of mankind's most important objectives.
Well at least something profitable may come from a Moonbase. It may create a launch vehicle so that man (and science) can operate in MEO. As I understand it, MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) was what shuttle was supposed to do before politics redefined the Space Shuttle. (
How's that from someone who does not read.)