Iss Falling Down

[zrice03]

Does anyone here know how come NASA is letting the ISS decend in it's orbit?(NOTE: I'm not looking for an explaination on why it happens--I know why--just if they're going to boost it back up anytime soon).

If you go to Heavens-Above, you can see a chart showing how high the ISS is. You need to sign up, but its free. It's down about thirty kilometers (or almost twenty miles for you Imperialists) since this time last year.

I'm starting to get a little :unsure: .

[imported_orion]

As to your question as to why the ISS is currently in a lower orbit than it was a year ago has to do with the lack of a shuttle fleet that is operational at the current time.

The shuttles can be used to boost the station in to a higher orbit. Since the entire shuttle fleet has been grounded the reboost capability has been left stictly up to the Progress resupply vehicles. Though they are caplable of doing this it also requires additional fuel mass which they have not flown up on the progress. This additional mass has been taken up by crew supplies and repair parts that would normally come up on the shuttle as well as the MPLM's.

I do beleive that there is a series of reboost planned to be accomplish by the STS-114 crew when the shuttle does return to flight in March, 2005.

This is the best information that I have heard concerning this at the current time. Hopefully this is what you are looking for.

[imported_orion]

Sorry but I forgot one thing. The current altitude of the station, as of 5 May, 2004 at 1921 GMT, is at 231.68 statue miles or 372.98 km for those of you in the rest of the world ( Sorry but had to through that in there ). There is no danger to the station falling out of orbit before the shuttle fleet does return to flight next year.

If the shuttle fleet were to remain in a longer stand down period then the progress would be needed to conduct the reboost of the station and the supples sent up on it such as water, food, and repair parts would be reduced so it could conduct the reboost operations.

I hope this is what you were looking for.

[zrice03]

I know that NASA wasn't about to lets its new multi-billion dollar space station just fall out of the sky, but I was wondering what was up.

Thanks for all the info!

[ASEI]

I wondered why they never put ion drives on it so it wouldn't have to be constantly reboosted. Too bad the space shuttle can't reach a decent low earth orbit with cargo.

[zrice03]

That's a good question. Ion drives can operate a long time on little fuel. It's probably because an ion drive is not strong enough to negate the force of the trace winds up there. The ISS is HEAVY compared to, say, Deep Space 1.

[imported_orion]

The main problem with the Ion Drive is that it is still in development so to say. Yes Deep Space 1 did use it but that was a small drive and it takes a LLOOOONNNGGGG time to build up speed.

NASA is currently working on developing a more usable drive system. I have heard of it possibly being used on the Project Constellation vehicle though in the next four to five years who know what will come out of research.

[Zodiac]

I don&#39;t know anything about this <_< -Zodiac