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The "space dream" of the United States may really be reduced to a joke!
While the two astronauts were still trapped on the International Space Station, NASA began planning to prepare for the ISS.
I have to say that the United States, the former "space hegemon", is really getting more and more disrespectful, not only watching its own astronauts trapped in space but unable to rescue them, but even the International Space Station will not be able to be saved!
When the International Space Station ran out of gas, NASA did not hesitate to spend $843 million to "drag" the International Space Station to the Pacific Ocean.
To know that the size of the International Space Station is unusually large, how feasible is NASA's plan?
With the retirement of the International Space Station, the mainland's "Tiangong" space station will undoubtedly become the only space station in the world.
Source: Beijing Daily 2024-07-02 Report on "Facing aging problems after more than 20 years of service, the future of the International Space Station is worrying".
The International Space Station is on the verge of "obsolescence".
NASA announced on June 26 that they will spend a huge amount of money to entrust SpaceX to bring the International Space Station back to Earth safely.
This also means that the International Space Station, jointly built by the United States, Russia and other countries, has really come to have to be decommissioned.
In fact, the International Space Station will be retired in recent years, which is something that can be foreseen from the beginning, after all, all instruments in space have a service life, especially those precision machinery and instruments.
Since it was officially put into operation in 1998, the International Space Station has been in space for nearly 30 years, and the original planned retirement time in 2028 is likely to be advanced to 2024 for various reasons.
The main reason for the early retirement of the ISS is that it is facing serious aging problems.
According to a report by Beijing Daily, on June 24, when two American astronauts were preparing to perform an extravehicular walking mission on the International Space Station, one of the astronauts had a serious water leak in his extravehicular spacesuit!
After some inspection, it was found that there was a problem with the cooling device of the extravehicular spacesuit, which is reported to have been used for more than 40 years, which is much older than many astronauts.
A spacesuit is used for more than 40 years! This is absolutely impossible to happen on the mainland, and the failed spacesuit has long been warned that it must be replaced, but NASA has always been indifferent.
Thankfully, the American astronaut had not yet stepped out of the capsule at the time of the breakdown, which prevented the tragedy.
It is not difficult to see that the attitude of the United States towards space missions is not as rigorous as the outside world thinks, which can also be clearly seen from the recent very popular "two American astronauts trapped in space".
Two American astronauts who are still trapped in space
On 5 June, after several postponements for some reason, the United States still insisted on sending two "aunt-and-grandma-class" astronauts into space through the Boeing "Starliner" spacecraft.
What they didn't expect was that it was relatively easy to send people up, but it became a big problem to return to Earth.
The reason for all this is that the Boeing "Starliner" spacecraft had a helium leak, but the United States could not find the cause of the failure, you must know that the spacecraft had a helium leak before the launch!
Obviously, the United States did not completely solve the problem of helium leakage, which led to the two older astronauts, Butch (male) 61 and Suni (female), 58, going through such ordeal when they are about to retire.
However, the reason why the United States is so anxious has a lot to do with the imminent retirement of the International Space Station, after all, NASA will soon face the dilemma of having no space station available, so it will be used as many times as possible.
According to relevant news, the United States plans to "tow" the International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean before 2030, and the "deorbiting vehicle" provided by Musk's SpaceX at that time will ensure the smooth implementation of this blockbuster mission.
The space station of the continent
But is it really possible for the International Space Station, which is 110 meters long, 88 meters wide and weighs 419.725 tons, to be "towed"?
At the same time, without the International Space Station, will all countries in the world, including the United States, "eye" the Tiangong space station on the mainland?
Want to be "towed" into the Pacific Ocean? It's not easy!
Source: Red Star News 2024-06-28 Report on "Musk receives another blockbuster mission: 'drag' the International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean".
Although the International Space Station is about to be retired and has varying degrees of aging problems, the International Space Station still has high scientific research value.
Therefore, the United States will never let the decommissioned International Space Station float in space orbit until it becomes space junk, so NASA will not hesitate to spend $843 million to "drag" it back to Earth.
And allowing the ISS to float in the Earth's orbit is also a huge safety hazard for all mankind, because once it loses regular maintenance and maintenance, the ISS is likely to be defeated by all kinds of space junk.
At that time, the space station with a deviated orbit was likely to be pulled to the ground by the earth's gravity, which would undoubtedly become a "time bomb" for humans living on the earth.
Therefore, whether from the perspective of economy, scientific research, or the security of all mankind, it is necessary for the United States to "tow" the International Space Station back to Earth.
However, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult for the United States to safely and smoothly "tow" the space station back to Earth, and even if NASA entrusts Musk's SpaceX, it may not be 100% guaranteed to be successfully realized.
SpaceX plans to develop a "de-orbiting vehicle" to help the International Space Station de-orbit and land smoothly in the Pacific Ocean under the influence of the Earth's gravity.
However, if you want to change the orbit of the space station weighing more than 400 tons, there are extremely high requirements for the performance of the "derailed vehicle".
At the same time, before the "towing" of the International Space Station, it is necessary to make the astronauts of various countries evacuate from it, and disassemble and take away some key instruments and experimental data to avoid accidents on the way back.
After this process, if nothing else, the International Space Station, which has been operating in space for more than 20 years, should be able to retire smoothly, which also means that the United States, Russia and other countries will no longer have space stations available.
In other words, China will soon become the only country in the world with a space station, and China's "space age" is coming!
We must not underestimate the importance of the space station to a country, it is not only a "window" for human beings to observe the universe, but also an important cornerstone for human beings to develop interstellar colonization.
At the same time, the space station is also a giant scientific experiment platform, where researchers can conduct various space scientific research, including materials science, biomedicine, and so on.
Over the years, with the space station, many countries have made great breakthroughs in various fields.
So with the retirement of the International Space Station, if the United States, Russia, Japan and other countries cannot build a new space station in time, then they are likely to seek cooperation from the mainland.
All along, the mainland has always been open to space cooperation and exchanges with other countries in the world, but this does not mean that the mainland will unconditionally provide assistance to all countries in the world.
Take the United States as an example, for many years it has relied on the "Wolf Clause" to severely suppress and sanction the development of the mainland's aerospace industry.
Therefore, if the United States really wants to borrow the mainland's "Tiangong" space station, then it must first abolish the "Wolf Clause."
Of course, even this does not mean that the mainland will definitely reach cooperation with the United States, after all, the "Tiangong" space station belongs exclusively to the mainland, and in the face of cooperation applications from all countries in the world, it may not be the turn of the United States at that time!
Key Sources:
1. The original article was published in Beijing Daily on July 2, 2024 on "Facing aging problems after more than 20 years of service, and the future of the International Space Station is worrying".
2. The original article was published in Xinhua News Agency on June 27, 2024 on "The United States will develop a 'space tugboat' to tow the International Space Station off orbit".
3. The original article was published in Red Star News on June 28, 2024 on "Musk receives another blockbuster mission: 'drag' the International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean".