The recently manned International Space Station is the closest thing, but still nothing like the dung-like stations in the movie
Avi Blizovsky
Sometimes more is less. Ask NASA.
The movie A Space Odyssey 2001 gave audiences an unforgettable look at what a space station should look like. It is a giant wheel that spins to create artificial gravity. The concept itself has been around since the fifties. Reality decided to go in a different direction. The two existing stations Mir and Alpha (the new name for the International Space Station) have no artificial gravity and therefore look like anything but a spinning wheel. Is something missing? Ask NASA and you will empathetically receive the answer "no". The space agency designed the International Space Station around the idea of creating an environment where scientists could study the effect of microgravity on humans, animals, plants, cells, materials and more.
John Yuri is a scientist working on the International Space Station project. He says that the research that will be done on the space station cannot be done anywhere else. "You need an environment where gravity is low," he says. "You need it to examine the long-term effect on the station.
One of NASA's priorities is that the space station will be used to study the effect of microgravity on humans. For decades, spaceflight has shown an effect on weakening bones, muscles and even heart activity. Some astronauts suffered from nausea and sleep problems. Yuri says that the goal of these new studies is to find ways to make space a more life-friendly place."
"Some of the first things we're going to look at is understanding the mechanics of the changes that have already happened." He says". So far we have observed the changes that are taking place and now we need to study the mechanics of how they develop and create countermeasures to prevent the changes."
Another field for research is biotechnology. One of the experiments planned for the coming months will test the growth of protein crystals. NASA says that these crystals do grow in microgravity. They are bigger and it is easier for science to understand how they were formed.
Teresa Vanhooser of the Marshall Space Flight Center says the research will have implications for the health of humans on Earth. "These protein crystals will make it possible to develop breakthrough drugs for many diseases thanks to drugs that will be based on the crystals and we will be able to learn with the help of the crystals the ways in which the diseases develop." She says.
Other projects planned for the International Space Station include: research into better ways to protect people in space from dangerous radiation; Tumor development research in microgravity, which will lead to better treatments for cancer, diabetes and AIDS; Directing some of the station's observational means towards Earth to examine long-term changes in weather, climatic changes, land use and the health of the oceans; Providing a better platform for astronomers to explore the sky to gain more knowledge about the Sun, cosmic radiation and the existence of dark matter.
The International Space Station is not without criticism either. Critics warn that at a price of $100 billion, the station will be much more expensive than planned. The construction works are far behind schedule. They also agree that the components built in Russia do not meet NASA's standards for quality. Many scientists question the need to keep humans in space, when unmanned spacecraft could produce better scientific output at a fraction of the cost of the space station.
Van Hooser believes that one day the critics will be proven wrong. "I think the space program gave birth to many spin-off technologies because of the research done so far." She says." The space station is another step in the direction of further study of the space environment. We must be sure that we continue to learn and continue to do research and development. I think these are NASA's strong points."
The space station is a work in progress. The construction of the space station is expected to take until 2006. But even before that it will start providing good scientific information. Some of the experiments are already on their way there, but the activity will begin later in 2001. The American laboratory "Destiny" is planned to be launched in January on the Atlantis shuttle.
"We will start the year by launching the American laboratory," says Yuri, "which will be the first facility to provide large-scale research. Later this year, we are supposed to add research facilities, and a large number of experiments, and we will continue to grow over the course of five or six years."
Meanwhile, the International Space Station is in the hands of the first crew. This team containing an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts took off on November 3, 2000. It marks the hope for the beginning of a permanent presence in space. "I think this is a wonderful step," says Yuri. "This is one of the most important events. It's not like the moon landing where everything is being tested by all the people on Earth all the time. But when we look back a hundred years from now, it will be a significant event. This is truly the day when humanity became a space-dwelling species."
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