Review of NASA Strategic Roadmaps: Space Station Panel, National Research Council

Full report

Executive Summary

This report of the National Research Council's (NRC's) Space Station Panel reviews NASA plans for the completion of the International Space Station (ISS) and its utilization in support of the human exploration of the solar system. At the time this report was written, no single integrated plan for the ISS was available for the panel's review. Instead, from the information made available to it from several recent NASA planning activities relevant to ISS utilization for the new exploration missions, the panel developed broad advice on programmatic issues that NASA is likely to face as it attempts to develop an updated utilization plan for the ISS. The panel also discussed some potentially important research and testbed activities to support exploration objectives that may have to be carried out on the ISS to be successful.

CURRENT STATUS OF ISS PLANS

According to the information presented to the panel, the ISS today is approximately 50 percent completed. NASA plans 18 or 19 more flights to finish construction of the ISS but hopes to reduce that number. The shuttle, currently the only transportation system capable of deploying the large ISS structural components and research modules, is planned to be decommissioned at the end of 2010. The panel's understanding is that NASA still plans to deploy all previously planned rack-level research facilities except for those associated with the centrifuge accommodation module (i.e., the life sciences glove box and animal holding racks). However, it appears that much of the racks' supporting equipment has been eliminated in concert with the NASA research programs that would have utilized the racks. The ISS currently carries a reduced crew of two, and NASA is considering scenarios for increasing it to six in 2009 or 2015, with 2008 being the earliest date that the ISS might be capable of sustaining a crew of six.

NASA currently defines the mission objectives for the ISS in support of extended crewed exploration of space as follows:

• Develop and test technologies for exploration spacecraft systems,
• Develop techniques to maintain crew health and performance on missions beyond low Earth orbit, and
• Gain operational experience that can be applied to exploration missions.

The panel agrees that these are appropriate and necessary roles for the ISS. However, the panel noted with concern that these objectives no longer include the fundamental biological and physical research that had been a major focus of ISS planning since its inception. In addition to increasing fundamental scientific understanding, much of that research was intended to have eventual terrestrial applications in medicine and industry. Previous reports1-3 also emphasized the importance of fundamental biological and microgravity research for the development of new technologies and the mitigation of space-induced risks to human health and performance both during and after long-term spaceflight. The loss of these programs is likely to limit or impede the development of such technologies and of physiological and psychological countermeasures, and the panel notes that once lost, neither the necessary research infrastructure nor the necessary communities of scientific investigators can survive or be easily replaced.

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