While NASA is struggling to piece together its share of the International Space Station, an independent panel urges the space agency to think long term. The National Research Council (NRC) calls for "revolutionary approaches" to spacewalking technology on the orbiting facility, recommends that station crews work directly with scientists on Earth as they conduct experiments and even suggests that NASA take a closer look at how to dispose safely of the station once its lifetime is up.
All of this likely will cost money, but the panel argues the investment will pay off handsomely in future years. The NRC study -- Engineering Challenges to the Long-Term Operation of the Space Station -- was ordered by Congress in 1997 because of concerns about the complexity of the effort to construct a massive international laboratory in space which will be in orbit for more than a decade.
"NASA needs to look beyond the assembly phase, and develop plans now to maximize efficiency once the space station is operational," says Thomas Kelly, the retired Grumman Corp. manager who chaired the effort. Agency officials declined comment until they have had a chance to examine the report.
The group of 11 (which included engineers, former astronauts and former space station managers) notes that "long-term operations have not yet been addressed thoroughly by NASA." However, the panel concluded that there are "no major engineering problems with the design" that would adversely affect the way business is done on the station once it is completed in 2005 or 2006. It also found that there is still time to fix the minor deficiencies before a crew of seven takes up residence.
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One of those shortcomings is the need for better communication between Earth and the station, which could be accomplished through a heavier use than now-planned of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. Increasing bandwidth "will be critical to the efficiency of the long-term operation" of the station, the study states. Crews, for example, will need frequent maintenance and repair tutorials from the ground, because astronauts will be staying aboard the facility for three months or more. During the recent Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, by contrast, astronauts received months of training on the ground for their brief mission.
Also, the amount of maintenance required to keep the massive station operating smoothly doubtless will take up much crew time. The panel warns that that workload "might leave... flight crews little time for research as happened in recent years on the Russian space station Mir." And to date, "NASA has not done sufficient analyses to alleviate this concern."
Panel members suggest that NASA ensure crew participation in organizing crew time, and also urge direct contact between the crew and principal investigators of scientific experiments being flown on the station. With more advanced communications, astronauts could respond quickly to scientists' needs.
The NRC also suggests that NASA assign a payload specialist -- an astronaut specifically trained to conduct experiments -- to one of the seven crew slots. Payload specialists have often flown on the space shuttle, but the agency at the moment has no plans to assign one aboard the station.
The space agency also needs to take another look at its extravehicular activity technology by focusing on advances in robotics and information systems. "Rather than introducing only incremental changes, revolutionary approaches should be pursued," the study states.
Finally, the panel reminds NASA not to forget that in space, what goes up into orbit must come down. Because of the sheer size of the facility -- which will not burn up completely when it plunges to Earth -- planning for a controlled reentry should begin now so the space agency will understand the risks.
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