Station wil Benefit Earth, NASA Says

December 2, 1998
by Paul Hoversten

Whether the International Space Station can produce good science is open to debate. Critics doubt it can. NASA says earthly benefits are bound to come from long-term experiments in space.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour, in this NASA graphic, is shown releasing the U.S. node "Unity" near the Russian node "Zarya" (upper right) beginning assembly of the International Space Station. "Zarya" is already orbiting the earth and "Unity" is scheduled to lift off aboard Endeavour early Thursday morning, Dec. 3, 1998.

If all goes as planned, the $ 50 billion station will be finished in 2004 and operate for a decade beyond that. Research in six labs will assess how the human body reacts to long stays in weightlessness to prepare for a possible return to the moon or voyages to Mars.

Other tests could lead to better drugs and treatments for cancer and other illnesses, NASA says. Long-term changes to Earth's climate and environment will be studied.

Scientists also will research how flames, fluids and metals react in space, and whether industrial processes on Earth can be improved.

	Which types of projects that will take place on the new space station do you consider the most important for people on Earth? Why? If you had to concentrate on some research and give up other research, what choices would you make? Why? Try It! Imagine that the work planned for the International Space Station is carried out successfully. Write a story about the direction the global space program goes from there, e.g. more manned flights, etc.

"We'll be trying to do research that will benefit people on Earth," Endeavour astronaut Jerry Ross says.

International cooperation is needed because space has become too expensive for any one nation to explore alone. The station will serve as a model for a multinational alliance if a manned mission to Mars ever is planned, NASA says.

Once completed, the station will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long -- the size of two football fields with a habitable volume of two Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

It will be more than four times as large as the Russian space station Mir and will house a crew of seven for four-month stays. The first three-man crew is due to take up residence in January 2000.

If nothing else, the station gives NASA something it has not had in 17 years of flying shuttles -- a home in space. But it also commits the nation, and to a lesser degree its 15 international partners, to a course of aiming no higher than low-Earth orbit.

"It's an attempt to keep manned spaceflight going," says Duke University's Alex Roland, a former NASA historian. "The manned space program has now become a structure with two pillars, the shuttle and the space station. And neither one is doing anything useful."