Decommissioning and Deorbiting the ISS
Why is the ISS being decommissioned? How will exactly it be deorbited? What will come next? This post will answer all your questions.
What is the ISS?
The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable laboratory in space. This space station orbits the Earth at a distance of 420 km. It acts as a home to astronauts from all over the world and is responsible for conducting experiments and research that can only be done in space.
Brief history
The original ISS was a collaboration between 2 countries: Russia and the USA. Over time, other space agencies, including the ESA, JAXA, CSA, and others also joined the project, contributing modules, resources, and personnel to the ISS.
It all started when Russia launched its Zarya module into space, it was designed to be a solo mission and orbit in space by itself. The same year, the US launched its Unity module with the same intentions. This was when both countries had the idea to join both of the modules together to make a bigger space station. Thus the ISS began to form.
Over the years both countries started contributing modules and adding to the ISS’ size. Other countries like Japan and space agencies like ESA started to collaborate too. This is how the space station formed.
Why decommission the ISS?
The ISS has continuously been inhabited by humans ever since November 2000. This makes it the only space station to be uninterruptedly inhabited for this long. This also means that the ISS is getting old. Some warnings have popped up that some of the systems have passed their expiry date and small cracks have started to appear in the Zarya module. Even a few air leaks have been reported in the living quarters of the crew. While most of these problems have been handled, it shows that the days of the ISS are numbered. This is why the space station is being decommissioned and deorbitted by 2031. This is going to be done by the proposed transition plan.
The International Space Station Transition Plan
The International Space Station Transition Plan is the proposed plan for deorbiting the ISS. A total of 5 national space agencies are responsible for this including NASA, CSA, ESA, JAXA, and ROSCOSMOS. This is how it is going to be done -
The ISS will slowly decrease its orbiting altitude using its own propellants, bringing it closer and closer to the Earth.
A new and modified spacecraft called the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) will be launched to the ISS.
The spacecraft will then adjust the space station’s trajectory such that when it falls to the Earth, it does not cause any damage. This will happen in the final re-entry maneuver.
The earth’s gravity and atmospheric drag will be used as much as possible to lower the orbit.
After all the crew have safely returned to the earth, a few small and final maneuvers will be done to line up the station over the intended landing area over the sea.
Space station operators will command a large re-entry burn, providing the final push to ensure safe atmospheric entry.
Most of the ISS will burn up in the atmosphere and the rest of it will land at an isolated point in the Pacific Ocean far away from any human settlements.
What after ISS?
The ISS still has quite a bit of life left in it, but NASA is already planning for what will come next. It is working closely with a few privately-owned companies to make new space stations. Axiom Space already has received a contract from NASA to build its own habitable module on the ISS. After launch, it will remain attached to the space station for a few years and plans to split up and form its own space station just before it is decommissioned. Another company: Space Entertainment Enterprise, is working with Axiom Space to make a studio for filming movies in space.
Other space stations
Many other countries are also trying to build their own space stations. China’s Tiangong space station is already in orbit around the Earth and is carrying astronauts right now. The ISS is still the largest space station in orbit currently.
Sources- nasa.gov, sciencefocus.com