The International Space Station Is Bigger Than Most Realize: Its Size & Capacity In Perspective
Recently, when the Canadarm2 maintained by the Canadian Space Agency was damaged by a piece of space debris tearing through its thermal blanket at high speed, it also came out that the robotic arm has been used on the International Space Station since 2001 — it is two decades old — showing the age of some of the components aboard the International Space Station.
What began as US government/taxpayer funded space exploration in the 1960s with the Gemini and Apollo programs has gradually morphed into a long-term international space presence, with shared costs and goals.
And as the ISS has aged, it has also grown in size. It’s now an airlocked, tied together collection of more than two decades’ worth of collaborative international space efforts. Construction of the ISS began in 1998, when the Russians launched their control module Zarya, which the next month linked up with its US counterpart, the Unity module. According to NASA, by late 2000 the first team of long-term space station residents were sent up, but of course back then the ISS was smaller and simpler, comprised of less parts than today.
An inside view of an International Space Station module; spacious and with room for lots of projects locked away in science lockers — this isn’t your grandpa’s crowded Skylab space station. It’s more like a floating city.
Imagine a personal computer or a car with components from two decades ago, tied in with modern day hardware, some made in Russia or Japan, others made in the US, and all with somewhat different engineering standards. The main modules are maintained by the United States and Russia, a partnership that seems to be testing its limits in some ways, but until private companies like SpaceX have 24/7/365 space stations where long term zero gravity experiments can be conducted safely, an international hub in space makes great sense for everyone involved.
The International Space Station today, for one thing, is huge — some 109 meters long, 75 meters high, with the weight of nearly 300 cars: abandoning it without cause would mean losing nearly 22 years of hard work from member nations’ space agencies. One of the brightest objects in the night sky, and the most expensive human engineering project in recorded history, even eclipsing estimated construction costs of the Great Pyramids, the Space Station is home to technological experiments in addition to biology experiments.
NEW: a live webcam view of Earth taken from the International Space Station itself — far out!! (will open in a new window)
The International Space Station today is about the size of a football field, and weighs nearly as much as 300 modern-day cars. Its launch and maintenance costs would be beyond that of even the world’s wealthiest private billionaires, which is why the project is international in scope and “owned” by no one.
Recently, an Ether node was successfully installed aboard the International Space Station according to a press release from SpaceChain. Although an exciting achievement for cryptocurrency fans, you can have almost anything sent up to the International Space Station for the right price, and provided you wait your spot in line for a trip. Later this year, Tom Cruise and a film crew — as well as an actress and film crew from a separate film production — will both spend time aboard the ISS.
So, the ISS in 2021 is now the home of a cryptocurrency node, and it’ll later be the floating set in space for two separate movies in production.
Incredible — but again, this thing is like a cruise ship or floating city, not a tiny space club like the Skylab station of 1973-1974, or the also space limited Mir space station of the 1990s. Although some components are old, new modules can be added, as well as more advanced solar power arrays and additional life support systems so that in the years ahead, the station can perhaps grow even larger.
—FULCRUM Research