In the past 20 years, mankind has achieved a significant milestone in space exploration and habitation—to some extent with the latter. The International Space Station (ISS) was assembled in partnership with several countries and their respective space agencies to operate and provide the elements of the space station. The principals of the space project include the United States of America, Russia, Canada, Japan, and European countries. The ISS was considered to be the most politically complex space exploration program undertaken.
What’s the purpose of the International Space Station, anyway? Investment planning?
On a serious note, it serves as the laboratory for scientific studies—cosmic rays and specks of dust, atmospheric oxides on Earth and sun, ozone, aerosols, antimatter and dark matter in the universe, microgravity, and others— that will eventually benefit humanity. The multi-national government-funded space station also serves as the starting point in exploring other worlds, using the lessons learned in preparation for human missions that reach farther into space than ever before.
Now for the main subject—will it last forever?
All things come to an end somehow, and the International Space Station is no exemption. At some point in the future, in one way or another, it will cease to exist—does such a thing have insurance?
The International Space Station has been cleared to operate until 2028 after all the technicalities have been considered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), according to their official statement. It also added that the administration’s analysis has not found any issues that will preclude the ISS from extending beyond 2028.
According to Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell, a specialist in tracking orbital objects in space, the risk of the International Space Station falling back to Earth is a high probability.
In 1979, NASA’s Skylab space station fell out of orbit and went crashing down back to Earth— it’s probably not because it didn’t have gas in it. As the object entered the atmosphere at a significant speed, pieces were ripped off from the main structure and left NASA with no option to control its speed and direction, which could have landed in a remote area. Instead, chunks of debris were scattered in parts of Australia – an oxygen tank being the largest.
Subsequently, people started to become risk-averse over the years. Experts were concerned about the idea of orbital debris, especially the largest one—the International Space Station. Weighing about 400 tons, it’s the heaviest man-made structure circumventing the Earth—credits to the countries involved. McDowell stated that the larger the object is, the less likelihood of it burning up in the atmosphere. With its array of solar panels, it’s vulnerable to spinning out of control, and at which point, rescue options would be limited.
When the time comes for the International Space Station to deorbit, this will involve pushing or pulling the structure back to Earth’s atmosphere, burning most of its parts during reentry. It’s a much thought-out option to prevent more space junk from floating in space.
Perhaps we can chip in our idea, like disassembling some of the space station’s smaller parts and bringing those back to Earth—a degree of ingenuity on our part. This may sound arduous to some degree as it may take a couple of years in the process, but the guarantee of safely retiring the ISS outweighs the means. With the technological advancements mankind has achieved, it’s really possible to safely deconstruct the space station. Government agencies and privately owned spaceflight companies globally must go hand in hand in the immense pursuit of dismantling the space station—if they decide to take that road.
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