Question 20 years of full-time human space habitation this year

On the 20th November this year, the International Space Station will have been in space for 2 decades. It launched just after my 8th birthday 20 years ago this year.

Kinda amazing that it's been in operation for 20 years, and we haven't replaced it yet??? We replace smartphones more often than we replace space stations.

One day, we'll go out there among the stars. Hopefully, I'll still be kicking when that day rolls round. I hope to live to see the start of the 22nd century. I might one of the lucky few to see two different changes of century!!!

But anyway, thoughts???

It cost a bundle to put it there, and it's modular. It doesn't make sense to replace it wholesale, better to keep upgrading it.

Not to mention we’re rather short of orbital capable rockets to get a replacement up there.

Just never, never, ever, ever, look in the ventilation. MIR and the Russian space program have some particular horror stories of...stuff...growing on the stations.

Katssun wrote: Just never, never, ever, ever, look in the ventilation. MIR and the Russian space program have some particular horror stories of...stuff...growing on the stations.

stuff DOES grow on the station:

Vegetable Production System

I mean more of the mysterious and virulent fungi varieties

Well of course where else would all the crap humans bring up in and on their bodies go? It's a closed loop environment and they aren't allowed hundreds of gallons of bleach.

A lot of the mistakes of past space stations were learned from and attempts made not to be done twice.

the First short term space station was Space Lab in the Apollo Era at its end. It was short lived and was a rude awakening to the fact of a permanent station bringing a lot of new Problems.

Russia did Mir and Nasa wanted the ISS to be modular to avoid the problems it encountered. We are all still learning with the ISS. most computers up on it still use floppy!!! in fact the first semi modern computer a Rack mounted server was sent up just in the last few year it was not state of the art when it was done. It was sent up to study how cosmic rays and radiation affect modern computers, a twin to it runs at NASA safe on the ground.

Things have gone wrong on it but nothing completely catostrophic or mission ending yet. I am more suprised it is still working with all the years of budget cuts and NASA loosing budget for Decades. But it keeps on ticking.

The problem, especially one that the Russians encountered, is that things grow way up there too, in their tiny sealed refuge from vacuum.

We don't sterilize astronauts the way we do space probes (for obvious reasons). Our own microbiomes keep us healthy. We're walking, talking, bacteria arcologies. We also do a great job bringing molds and fungi up to the stations.

These stations become literally impossible to clean. Mir got gross. The Salyut's were worse.

Any long term habitation in space has to either tolerate it, embrace it, or find a balance to keep it manageable.

edit:
Speaking of which, the really amazing story is how the Russians rescued Salyut-7. The hard way. I'll leave it at that to not spoil the story behind it.

The most fascinating thing is that we have found traces of Plankton living on the outside of the International Space Station: www.iflscience.com/space/marine-plankton...ional-space-station/

konzill wrote: The most fascinating thing is that we have found traces of Plankton living on the outside of the International Space Station: www.iflscience.com/space/marine-plankton...ional-space-station/

This could be another element of proof for the Pan-Spermia theory of how life developed on this planet.