The
International Space Station
Up to
this point, the International Space Station may be one of humanities greatest
accomplishments. The estimated 100 billion dollar machine which is constantly
being “renovated” and improved has helped us find many new scientific
discoveries which would have been nearly impossible without its existence. It also gives us the opportunity to test out experiments
which can only be done in space.
What is
it?
The
International Space Station (ISS) is a space station that orbits the earth from
space. Since it is so large and orbits so low, it is actually possible to view the
station with the naked eye at night time, however it travels at an incredible
average speed of 27,000 km/h. The first
module was launched on November 20th 1988 from with the intention of being used as a
laboratory, an observatory and factory for conducting research that could not
be done on earth for astronauts from all over the world rather than one nation
(hence the name “International Space Station” . It is also used to
provide a home for people in space who are studied by scientists during their
stay in order to learn the effects of living in space.
How it was
built:
Since the
International Space Station is so large and heavy (approximately 450,000 kg
which is quite a bit), it would be out of the question to build it as one piece
on earth and launch it into space. Instead, with the agreement and
collaboration of 15 different countries (although most belong to the European
Space Agency), they sent different flights to supply the ISS with new parts and
supply for habitation from all the partnering countries in an organized manner.
Since the ISS has been adding and
replacing different sections since its launch, it has been created in a very
flexible way to allow the addition of new pieces to be as simple and efficient
as possible.
