The ISS

I've been thinking about Mr. Huebner's challenge for a few days now.
I suppose that his message is to quit complaining and make do with
what we have. However, the paucity of responses to the challenge
here may vindicate the nay-sayer who thinks the space station was the
wrong direction to go.

That's not to say there isn't a use for it, but nothing comes readily
to mind. It is my opinion that any such use is a contrivance and
does not reflect the building of a real economy in space (if that's
our objective. It's clearly not NASA's objective.)

That said, I can only see the space station as a consumer at this
point. There are at least 3 people up there 24x7x365. The eat,
drink and consume oxygen. One enterprise might be to supply these
consumables cheaply. Russia may already have a corner on that. But
perhaps it is possible to provide them even more cheaply and undercut
the international governments for NASAs money. Consider also the
idea that these supplies could be provided TO the shuttle on its trip
up rather than the other way around. Thus, providing a greater
capacity for more "shuttle oriented" cargo.

Another possible avenue is for a private enterprise to take up the
torch for the habitation module. If an organization could front the
cash for putting that up there, there would be 4 berths and storage
space that is leasable most likely to NASA at first and perhaps to
others later. I have no idea what kind of cash or other factors are
involved here. I have, however, sent an inquiry along these lines.
I will post the response (if any) when I receive it. If the
government were really serious about space-economy development (which
it isn't) they could even provide the front money as a low interest
loan. (Or guarantee a loan...)

These are not plan outlines as you requested; they are merely ideas.
And, note that both of them depend on NASAs budget and therefore have
no real fertilizing affect on the Space Economy. I'm not convinced
that the space station can provide that. Are there scientists
clamoring for space or lab time on the station? Are there
manufacturing organizations who wish that they could have a person
working there? I don't think so, but maybe I'm wrong.

I'll admit that I'm trolling a wee bit here. Mostly because I think
that the challenge has merit (for whatever my opinion is worth), and
I don't think it was given the attention it deserved.