REAL LIFE NEWS: THE SPACE STATION WILL LIVE ON
by Hazed
The International Space Station has had its mission extended until at least 2024 by the US government, NASA has announced. It hopes that the other partners in the ISS will also commit to continued funding of the station.
NASA says that this will allow NASA to “complete necessary research activities aboard the ISS in support of planned long-duration human missions beyond low-Earth orbit—including our planned human mission to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. NASA has determined that research on ISS is necessary to mitigate fully 21 of the 32 human-health risks anticipated on long-duration missions. A related critical function of ISS is testing the technologies and spacecraft systems necessary for humans to safely and productively operate in deep space. Extending ISS until 2024 will give us the necessary time to bring these systems to maturity.”
Other goals that the extension will let NASA accomplish include extending “the broader flow of societal benefits from research on the Station. Research conducted on the ISS has already resulted in a number of discoveries with significant medical and industrial implications. Medical examples include potential vaccines for Salmonella and antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, and a microencapsulation technique for delivering cancer treatment drugs to tumors without affecting healthy cells. Additionally, technologies advanced by the ISS have led to robotic surgical techniques that are opening the door to successful removal of tumors that were previously considered inoperable.”
Good news for astronauts, too, as it means they will continue to be employed.
