Russia planning de-orbit of ISS in 2020

[YellowSubmarine]

You might wanna include the cost to resupply the International Moon Station. Lifting something cargo is one thing...we already have several companies vying to do it. Lifting cargo to the moon is something else.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy can do that.

But my idea was to change the station orbit, shut it down and leave it there for future generations to capture it and turn it into a museum.

And since the orbit change is going to take years, presumably the technology for sending supplies will improve as it goes further. Add one Falcon Heavy launch per year or two, and that's 2 billion.

3 billion to save the station doesn't sound so bad if the figure is correct, that's about 6 shuttle missions. The cost to build it in the first place was 100 billion.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Better stick a mighty big disclaimer on it first; when that ol' thing falls to pieces with a truckload of Chinese taikonauts they'll want to sue someone.

"Show me the CarFax."

 

[RJDiogenes]

Or at the very least shove it far out into Lunar orbit or many even a Langragian Point.

Start an orbit museum.

That's exactly what I'd like to see.


Probably. I was just expressing dismay at these things that have been lost to History. On the other hand, somebody may be able to figure out a cheap way to do it. There was an interesting story in Analog a few years back that was based on the idea of the power generated by the Space Shuttle as it passes through the Earth's magnetic field. This causes the orbit to decay. What they did was use solar panels to pump energy back into the magnetic field which caused the Shuttle's orbit to increase without expending fuel. It might also be possible to use a couple of those ion engines to slowly inch it up to a high orbit over a period of months or years.

Exactly; first use electric power in a tether to raise it to a higher orbit, then -possibly- to power a retrofitted ion-drive... also my thoughts

There you go. I forgot about the tether component.

But my idea was to change the station orbit, shut it down and leave it there for future generations to capture it and turn it into a museum.

Same here. I didn't imagine keeping it operational in a high orbit (and I think it would be best to keep it above the Clarke Belt).