What is the purpose/mission of the International Space Station?

Question

Could someone explain this to me..Where is it docked, how is it docked..what's the overall purpose and mission?
Thanks

Answer 1

It's mission is to serve as a platform for long-term human spaceflight study. Future missions to mars and long stays on the moon will require long-term spaceflight, so we need to know ahead of time what to expect when we actually go back to the moon for months at at time, and travel to mars and beyond.

The ISS also serves and will serve as an experimental site for micro-gravity experiments. Certain science cannot be done on the earth within its gravity, so they have to take the experiments into space, where the effective gravity is near zero. Example: certain crystals for use in radiation detectors will not grow well on the earth -- space-grown crystals make much better detectors.

The ISS may also serve as a platform for earth observation pallets. Rather than build a whole satellite with fuel, power, and guidance systems, one can simply take the science package that would go into the satellite and bolt it onto the ISS, and use its fuel, power, and guidance systems -- it saves money for the earth-observing scientist.

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Answer 2

It's not docked; it is in free orbit around the earth, and circles the earth every 90 minutes or so. The space SHUTTLE Endeavor is currently docked to the International Space Station (they're circling together); that may be what you're thinking of.

As far as its purpose and overall mission--frankly, I'm having a hard time finding any statement about that at the NASA website(!) There's just this quote from NASA Administrator Mike Griffin: "a stepping stone...to go out beyond Earth orbit for purposes of human exploration and scientific discovery."

Answer 3

It is not docked. It is in orbit around the earth. Its purpose is ro serve as a base for interplanetary exploration.

Answer 4

it ain't docked unless it's attached to an international sky hook
-- as an overall mission, it's an erector set for the entertainment
of astronauts, cosmonauts and other internationalnauts.

Answer 5

well, duh, this is THE ultimate boy toy!!
how could it get better-cost a LOT you ain't got one-life is good.
now, you are gonna have to get someone way smarter than I to explain it's purpose. it's some engineer saying "hey, I can do that, and some politician saying-hey, this is going to be built in my district-so I can get re-elected" and there went a few hundred billion dollars
1. it's docked in space-there is no gravity (nothing is pulling on it in any direction) so it just sits there
2. occasionally, it needs to be corrected, because it's position needs to remain in precisely the same spot. when this is necessary there are small engines that can "steer" it to the location it needs to be.

Answer 6

to make work for nasa