International Space Station

[Nnomulac]

no big deal

[knoxvilleguy2]

I was with a civilian space - lobbying group that thought the ISS was going to be an orbital " money pit ". They were wrong.

There are rumors that ISS can be maeuvered like a space - ship, perhaps even taken out of orbit to, say, Mars. Do you think there's ANY veritas to this idea ?

[drsheikhjunior]

I have another question,why does the Soyuz/Progress looks like its covered in some fabric thigy?

[drsheikhjunior]

this shouldnt be double comments :)

[drsheikhjunior]

I have another question,why does the Soyuz/Progress looks like its covered in some fabric thigy?

[bulldaawg]

the fabric thigy is part of the heat shield that burns up on re entry.

[drsheikhjunior]

LoL at 1:30,thats why its great to be in outer space.

[rixille]

And no, they don't need to spin the ISS around, the frames that hold the solar panels have motors that turn 360 degrees to adjust to the sun's position.

[timesman]

Different Attitudes are used to keep sun light power between construction fases. So they need to rotate the station like a wheel of fortune in space. Always looking at the sun.

[TheCottonTop]

Why do we build a space station/ship that it nuclear? Come on, we can aford it.

[carzorthade]

Because it's not a smart idea to have radioactive material orbiting the earth.

[rixille]

No, because that it requires constant monitoring and control. Radiation isn't the issue. As a matter of a fact, the ISS has Lead film in the mid-sections of the modules to dim down solar radiation.

[captinseperoth]

why not?

most likely it will burn up when it comes down...so no problem!

[carzorthade]

Do you know that the temperature of re-entry is enough to neutralize nuclear material? Otherwise it'll inhabit the upper atmosphere and rain down over the whole Earth.

[captinseperoth]

ya..i mean it burns around 500 degrees...what cant be neutralized then?

Our NASA should be part of the new infrastructure! That would be geting atention when we create jobs....

we create a space elevator......we eliminate all toxic waste!

we create a elevator...the mobs will come!

the mobs will give checks to the debt department..and the construction crew to build more elevators!

[captinseperoth]

I mean 5000 degrees

[mmysama]

What I want to know is, why are the solar panels, and the truss so freaking huge? I mean, the pressurized sections are positively dwarfed by them. By comparison, skylab and Mir had much smaller panels. And why does the ISS need a structural backbone? To my knowledge, the structural stresses of space are pretty small, and it's not going to fall apart of theres not enough structural support. i would like to see a really technical answer for these, complete with geek-talk.

[fiftyninefitted]

call nasa

[deventimothybryant]

the iss is a lot bigger and more complex than skylab and therefore probably needs more power. thats why the solar panels are larger. as for the truss it also provides means to transport objects across the station.

[andrey162000]

without a backbone, you would be piggybacking all kinds of components off of one another. this type of design ( a truss) keeps future designs and installs of modules and components much easier cmon man its space, not a house being framed with wood

[karakaya0001]

İSTİKBAL GÖKLERDE ATATÜRK

[jer0701]

How come it shows the science power platform on the ISS? they dont plan for that!

[jer0701]

They don't plan for a SPP

[Lincoln6Echo1]

Unfortunately, some of the answers the NASA employee gave weren't technical enough to really understand how some things work. Like the attitude thrusters for example. I still don't get how they maintain the station's altitude and stuff. I thought the CMGs took care of the attitude.

[neolink101]

Well the station is being drawn to the earth by the earth's gravitational pull correct? Now the altitude thrusters keep the space station from falling, every so often the station is drawn closer to earth the thrusters turn on (automatically i figure) and repel the station the right distace if not height from the earth if not its atmosphere.

[neolink101]

Oops Attitude i meant to say not altitude but its relative.

[Lincoln6Echo1]

Well, I know that the way they increase the altitude is that have to speed up the station....just as they do with the shuttle. ie. The faster you go, the higher the orbit. Before the station grew as big as it is, they used the shuttle to boost the orbit.