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Since the International Space Station (International Space Station) started having astronauts in 2000, it has spent more than $ 100 billion on construction and maintenance costs, but has it benefited society? Scientists fall into two groups: some people think it is a drive beacon, while others think it is just a background board for action movies.
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The Guardian font
Author Robin McKie
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Space scientists are preparing to celebrate an extraordinary space achievement. In a few days, it will be the twentieth year that humanity will continue to survive in outer space.
For 20 years, the team of astronauts have visited the International Space Station without interruption and have built their homes 400 kilometers above our planet. On November 2, 2000, the first group of astronauts entered the space station, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian astronauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Krikalev. Yuri Gidzenko. Since then, the space station has provided shelter for astronauts who rotate regularly, and the astronauts have made sure that there is always someone to maintain their operations.
The space station weighs 420 tons and orbits the Earth 16 times a day at a speed of 17,000 miles (equivalent to a speed of 27,359 kilometers per hour). A total of 240 male and female astronauts have remained inside. The 109-meter-long space station includes six sleeping areas, two bathrooms and a gym. The most popular place is a set of windows built in Europe, called Cupola, which offers a 360-degree view. Members can overlook how storms accumulate on earth and how the sun rises.
Tim Peake is the only British astronaut on the official record to ever board the International Space Station and a huge fan of the dome module. He said that when he saw our planet for the first time, he realized how fragile it is. “You can see the atmosphere, it’s only 10 miles thick. It’s not endless,” he recalled in an interview with the BBC, “All the gas that supports the earth we live on is so thin. A layer. Suddenly you give yourself realize that what we emit into the atmosphere is really very important. “
The more mundane aspects of life on the space station include astronauts floating in the air playing a guitar serenade and a culinary story of Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who drank the first drink from a zero-gravity cup in outer space. A cup of espresso and the handling of a series of accidents with broken toilets: “This part of the space station is what people are most curious about after we return to Earth,” said Piqué. And these internal details are very important, the scientists insist. “Keeping the International Space Station running tells us that even though the outer space environment is extremely harsh, humans can still settle there and settle far away from their home planet,” said Charles Cockell, professor of astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh (Charles Cockell), “For us, this lesson is very important.”
International Space Station
In the 1980s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) first formulated a plan to build a permanent orbiting space station. However, the cost estimate indicates that the cost of the plan can be prohibitively high. It was not until the disintegration of the Soviet Union that the United States had the opportunity to cooperate with Russia. Russian aerospace engineers have already acquired a great deal of experience in long-term space missions. They originally had a small orbiting space station, Salyut, and a space station, Mir, which is much larger than the previous one.
“This is also a very pragmatic move by the United States.” Professor Anu Ojha, director of the British National Space Center, commented: “When the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States wanted to prevent the loss of space experts from the former Soviet Union, so it tried all means to get them to participate in the joint alliance. The space project can ensure that they remain in their home country and at the same time provide them with some degree of support. The International Space Station is the perfect plan to achieve this goal. “
In the end, the United States and Russia reached a consensus on the plan to build the International Space Station. At the same time, the space agencies of Canada and Japan also agreed to join, as well as the European Space Agency (ESA), of which the UK is a key member. Assembly of the space station began in 1998, requiring the United States to send 30 spacecraft, and Russia launched more than 40 rockets to send components and modules to the space station. By 2011, the space station was officially completed. Astronauts have been busy building space stations for many years. In the last few years alone they have been able to focus on conducting rigorous scientific research, including collaborating with thousands of scientists on Earth to conduct more than 3,000 experiments.
The final construction cost of the International Space Station exceeds US $ 100 billion (about 670 billion yuan). The annual cost of space station servicing and maintenance flights has skyrocketed to US $ 4 billion (about 26.8 billion yuan). The United States paid the majority of these payments. Here comes the question: Is such a large expense really worth it?
Professor Ian Crawford, an expert in planetary sciences at Birkbeck, University of London, believes it pays off: “The space station is a model of high-level international cooperation, born out of the world’s urgent need for power. activities that unite humans and nations. And learning to live and work in space puts us in a favorable situation, because we are ready to return to the moon and perhaps send humans to Mars. “
In 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield made a space version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Image source: NASA / EPA
However, other scientists have different points of view. “It cannot be proven that it is reasonable to spend a large amount of money on the construction of the International Space Station,” said Sir Martin Rees, an astronomer at the Royal Society. “First of all, its scientific rewards seem negligible today. We have some knowledge of how the body will react in space. We have grown some crystals under zero-gravity conditions, but this is by no means comparable to the tens of billions dollars invested in the space station. In fact, the space station will only make news of lace. For example, the toilet is blocked or an astronaut floats in the air playing the guitar and singing. “
Reese added that NASA funds can best be used to launch robotic missions to other planets or build orbital astronomical observers, etc. His point of view was supported by Nobel Prize winner Steve Weinber, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. “The only interesting science experiment done on the space station was studying cosmic rays with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, but during its operation, the astronauts played no role,” he told the Observer. , “The instrument can be put into orbit through unmanned tasks and the cost is much lower.”
Oga added that he initially questioned the scientific rationale for the International Space Station, but is now convinced that it is a great success. “We have made achievements in the experience of manned space flight and aerospace engineering, and the scientific output is also huge. We have learned to assemble giant structures in space, live in space for a long time, and deal with various unexpected situations.” It’s important that we don’t waste these experiences. “
The important lesson the astronauts on the study space station taught us is the long-term impact of life in a zero-gravity environment on the human body. These effects include loss of muscle mass, decreased bone density, and impaired vision and taste. The scientists also found that it takes astronauts several years to regain their bone density after completing four to five months of space missions. On the other hand, by using treadmills and weight machines, astronauts can avoid the most serious consequences of muscle loss.
NASA plans to continue investing funds to support the International Space Station over the next four to five years, and expressed hope that private companies can take over the space station for commercial operations in the future. The official funds will be used for more advanced space missions, such as exploration and settlement on the moon, and they may one day send humans to Mars. These projects will include the construction of a lunar space station “Gateway” smaller than the International Space Station, which will orbit the moon and become a transit stop for humans to explore the lunar surface.
But are private companies interested in taking over the International Space Station? Initially, several companies expressed interest and said they wanted to work there. Axiom Space, a private company based in Texas, USA, has signed an agreement with NASA to build a modular assembly in which research for new materials will begin. Actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman (Doug Liman) plan to bring a manned dragon spaceship to the space station next year, where various action-adventure movie scenes will be shot. The reality show “Space Hero” scheduled to air in 2023 also announced that it will send the champion to the International Space Station.
It remains to be seen if activities like this are enough to keep people investing billions of dollars to operate the space station. Another plan is to dismantle the space station and drop it to earth in a spiral descent, waiting for these parts to burn up in the atmosphere.
If this is the case, it would be a terrible waste, Kirkel said. “We have all worked hard to come to an agreement and build a space station. If it is lost, it is unlikely that another will be built anytime soon. Therefore, we must encourage companies to operate the space station, at least let that supports it The last ten years “.
