IF the space shuttle program is retired in 2010 how can they bring food to the ISS?

Question

Food will be gone 3 years after the retirement of the space shuttles! S.O.S for the ISS crew. How can they bring food to the international space station.

Answer 1

The next generation of US space vehicles will be able to dock at the ISS, along with Russian spacecraft. The space shuttle is used to transport the parts needed to complete the construction of the ISS.

Answer 2

Three years and one month from now the space shuttle will be retired.
1. Soviet Space shuttle will work. It is not possible in 3 years that they can rebuild their space shuttles.
2.the Soyuz rockets continue to supply the food to ISS.
3. ISS will be retired then.It is unlikely to be retired that early since ISS still works.
4. Human factor, they disputed among themselves.
These are all the possibilities.

Answer 3

I just got back from a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, and they talked about that. We're going back to a simpler method...rockets.

For people, a four-person capsule on top of a rocket consisting of a single Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster with a shuttle main engine on top as a second stage.

For cargo, a pair of longer solid rocket boosters and five shuttle main engines, which will lift 125 metric tons into orbit...which is about 1 1/2 times what the shuttle weighs.

Sounds pretty cool.

Answer 4

The ISS is being supplied mostly by the Russian Soyuz missions along with unmanned cargo vessels. The only thing that the Space Shuttle is really used for is to remove the trash.

Answer 5

1. The Russians still have rockets that can go there.

2. Other countries may soon have them too.

3. USA may start another program.

4. Or they can abandon the ISS with the last shuttle flights.

Answer 6

They will use what the Russians have used for years when they had Mir, they will use service ships. They go up with no people on board, very much like a satellite. They eventually get to the station and they are piloted by computer to the station airlock. That is how they get rid of waste from the station and get food and other supplies to the astronauts.

Answer 7

We don't leave people there for three years at a time. If we're not coming back, we won't leave people there that need food. Besides, we're not the only ones using the station - Russia is as well, and they'll probably have shuttles.

Answer 8

What i think they will be doing is to grow their 'smart food', so they do not need supplies from Earth.

or maybe changing their waste material to something edible, who knows!

and i'll like to comment on Steve's answer.
big big balloons wouldnt work, because it vaccum up in the space, so the balloons must be lighter than space, which go against the law of Physic.

Answer 9

Balloons
Really really big ones.