A change in thinking about ISS

> The REALITY is that the darn thing is going up as is, as poorly
> conceived as that might be. Rather than say what should have been
done,
> we all start talking about how to get the most out of what has been
> done. We need to stop looking backward and lamenting that this or
that
> is wrong from our point of view. Start thinking about how to get the
> most out of what IS.

>

I agree. As a matter of fact, it would be worse to stop now. With
the ammount of equipment already on orbit and materials in the
pipeline, we should be talking about what the ISS could be use for.
In my perfect world, I'd put $1 billion into Suttle Derived HHLV, $1
billion into Wet Launched External Tank Habitats, and another $1
billion into an orbiter similar to the Crew Return Vehicle. Triple
(hell even quad) those costs for station equipment (life support,
station keeping, ect) and we'd have an orbital outpost with more
capabilities than ISS and much less cost. Plus, we have a launch
system much more in line with SSI (and other organizations) vision.
On the down side, we would have to discontinue STS and loose manned
orbital capability for 3-5 years (probably more) but we'd be better
in the long run.
This is a chance for us (and other organizations) to express
opinions on what direction research should take. IMHO, Alpha
(technically, it's not ISS anymore) should be researching enclosed
organic life support systems, raw materials refining, metal
fabrication and tool construction.

king_rodent (putting the eek in geek)