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Originally Posted by BigJim
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When civvie stations start going up, they will be doing so with the knowledged gained by having the ISS up there making the first steps, the first mistakes, and the first successes...We won't have the ability to properly regulate the standards for civilian stations unless someone in an official capacity (read: NASA) sets those standards by knowing what can go right and go wrong.
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The ISS has only been operating for about a third the time that Mir did, and counting Salyut, the Russians have had men in orbit on stations for about 30 years. We know an awful lot about space stations and how to run them already, what with Skylab, Salyuts 1-7 (especially 4 and after), and Mir. The ISS is by no means making the first mistakes or successes. We're not learning anything tremendously important on the ISS in terms of engineering, except perhaps the mating of equipment from different countries - but we did that in 1975 with Apollo-Soyuz. And science on the ISS? Have you heard of even one scientific discovery that's been made there to date? New drugs, new computer chips, etc. will never be developed on the ISS, regardless of the "research agenda", because research is not really done there. The most important thing we've learned on the ISS is that this piecemeal construction business does not work; it's at least 8 years behind the original schedule once this configuration was finalized. |
Agreed, but this is being done with newer technologies, international cooperation and on a much larger scale lead by a government that does not have the level of enforced focus that the Soviets had in launching and building Mir. Mir didn't have gyro stabilization, Mir didn't have a robot arm with the independence of the ISS's, Mir didn't have the extensive truss structures, Mir didn't have to service multiple spacesuit configurations and multiple docking ports.
As much as we need to learn what to do up there, we're also learning how
NOT to do things up there. (Staged construction, etc.)
Contrary to public opinion and belief, there does come a time when the only way a lesson can sink in is by doing something and screwing up royally.[/i]