International Space Station Construction Research Articles

Administrative Leadership and Long-Term Technology: NASA and the International Space Station

How does a nation geared to short-term politics achieve technological goals that stretch over decades? That is a cardinal question of U.S. space policy. The International Space Station (ISS) provides an important case study. Known originally as Space Station Freedom, it was initiated in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan to project U.S. leadership and compete with the Soviet Union’s space station program. NASA subsequently brought in Europe, Japan, and Canada as partners. The Clinton-Gore Administration reinvented “Freedom” as the International Space Station in 1993, enlisting Russia as NASA’s post-Cold War senior partner. ISS construction was completed in 2011 under President Barack Obama, who extended its utilization period until 2024. President Donald Trump has proposed ending funding in 2025 in favor of commercial take-over. This article uses a policy history of the space station for insights about how NASA Administrators advanced or impeded this long-term program. It employs the concept of “relay leadership” to show how a leader moved this program from one state of evolution, and another continued it to the next point. To accomplish any future long-term technological program, such as a Moon base or mission to Mars, NASA will need to apply policy lessons from the ISS experience.

Determination of characteristic frequencies of elastic oscillations of the International Space Station construction

The results of investigating free oscillations of the International Space Station construction appearing during spacecraft docking and undocking are described. The study is carried out using the measurement data of the low-frequency MAMS accelerometer. Several intervals of measurements performed in 2005 and 2006 were chosen to be studied. For chosen intervals, only the data intervals corresponding to the process of free attenuation of the oscillations construction elements were analyzed. Characteristic frequencies of elastic oscillations of the station construction and attenuation coefficients corresponding to them are found. The comparative analysis of the results obtained for various docking ports (nodes) is carried out. The described study is performed as a part of the technical experiment “The ISS Environment” carried out onboard the station in accordance with the Russian program of scientific and engineering experiments.

The “Vision for Space Exploration” of President George W. Bush, space science, and U.S. space policy

On January 14, 2004 President George W. Bush announced a major overhaul of U.S. space exploration strategy and infrastructure, stipulating that NASA complete the International Space Station (ISS) and retire the Space Shuttle fleet by 2010, develop a new suite of launch and exploration vehicles for deployment shortly thereafter, and embark on a program of human exploration of the solar system with crewed landings on the moon by 2020 and, eventually, Mars. The “Vision for Space Exploration” would be funded by resources liberated by the end of the International Space Station construction and the Shuttle program, assuming a very modestly increasing NASA budget. While this decision marks a decisive attempt to grapple with longstanding issues concerning the Space Shuttle and station, it has stimulated both optimism and fear within the space community. There is skepticism about its intent, its feasibility, and concern for the effects on various areas of space science and technology. This decision is similar to other, major such initiatives in the history of NASA and space flight, relies on longstanding scenarios and models, and much of its content has been proposed unsuccessfully in the past.

National Research Council report cites radiation control for astronauts and International Space Station

The affiliated committees of the National Research Council (NRC)—the Committee on Solar and Space Physics (CSSP) and the Committee on Solar‐Terrestrial Relations (CSTR)—conducted a study to assess the radiation hazard to astronauts engaged in extravehicular activities (EVAs) needed to construct the International Space Station (ISS). The committees' findings and recommendations appear in a just‐released NRC report titled “Radiation and the International Space Station: Recommendations to Reduce Risk.” What motivated the study was the fact that while solar storms bearing intense radiation are rare, EVAs during ISS construction flights are frequent, and so the two might, by chance, coincide. Indeed, an analysis conducted for the study indicates that at least one and probably two ISS construction flights will be in progress when a highlatitude radiation event occurs. The report considers options to reduce radiation risk to astronauts and to minimize the impact radiation events might have on ISS construction.