Hello, i have a question about the I.S.S. and the idea and manpower that made it happen?

Question

The question is isn't the design of the I.S.S. already obsolete i mean why didn't they design it to have artificial gravity so the astronauts could stay up there longer?

sorry i think that i might have squeezed two questions into one sentance.

Answer 1

Dark_Hellbent_king :

Well here's the questions we have (adults) have been asking
NASA for over 35 years now. Here are some answers:

1. In 1974, congress said no to NASA when they suggested a
improvement to Skylab. Back then Skylab was falling into
the atmosphere due to bad placement. Congress said
the project was too expensive then (1974, .. $2 Billion US).

2. NASA does have a way to create gravity .. centrifugal
Gravity. Rotate a large body in a wide circle and the
center of gravity is produced to create the gravity effect
for your astronauts. Problem is: NASA has no idea how
to construct such a massive terrestrial sphere to gen-
erate the gravity necessary to support long-term missions.
Both feasibly and economically.

3. Even if we did produce a station with gravity and a
large one at that ... the station would only have a lifetime
of 25 years ... maximum. Debris from space pelts any
object in orbit with high-speed velocity. One experiment
recorded a grain of sand-like particles embedded in the
glass housing of a Soyuz spacecraft. It was recorded at
a speed of over 5,000 miles an hour. And that is sand.
Think what a rock the size of a bus would do to a station
the size of the Empire State Building. oh, and by the way,
that rock is also 8 times denser than granite.

Answer 2

The I.S.S. is basically a laboratory and most of the experiments on board deal with microgravity.
Of course if the station would be only a permanent base for human exploration, it would be wise to obtain artificial gravity, as in Space Odyssey film from Kubrick.

Answer 3

If you build a dough-nut shaped habitat it has to be quite large so that it doesn't make the astronauts sick. If it's not big enough it has to spin fast (4-5 rotations a minute) in order to make centrifugal gravity. The fast spinning can make you sick over time. If they made it very large it would've been super expensive. (The habitat has to be approximately 1500 feet in diameter and spin .8 times a minute. That habitat would cost 500 billion dollars or so).

Answer 4

One of the main reasons to have a space station is to do microgravity research. If you want gravity, just stay on the ground!

Answer 5

Hi. The only way we know to simulate gravity is to spin the spacecraft. Then, as now, we do not have the ability to make the ISS large enough and strong enough to spin it fast enough.