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China shares ambitious plans to double its space station as the ISS approaches the end of its life cycle
(interestingengineering.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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I don't really understand how the entire ISS could be "end of life cycle." Aren't there a bunch of different modules of different ages? And anyway, the oldest modules are 24 years old that is nothing with proper maintenance, there are 50 year old trains still in operation daily.
Space trains fall under a different regulating authority than space stations, unfortunately.
If a train fails, at worst that will happen is it will stop. When a space station fails, the worst that will happen is everyone inside dies.
In addition, a space station is far more expensive, and it may be simply too expensive to still maintain old technology. Ideally, at some point, one will replace it with a newer, more modern, space station. Which will both be cheaper, and allow more, novel, science to be done. Although I don't know if there is any plan for that.
I'd like to see a space station with a rotating ring, that generates artificial gravity through centrifugal acceleration.
Lol that's nowhere near the worst scenario for a train failure.
I don't know why can't they just send it to a Lagrange point and leave it there. Burning it seems like literally burning money.