All dressed up & no place to go

[lproven]

It's All Decked Out. Give It Somewhere to Go.

By Michael Benson

Consider the International Space Station, that marvel of incremental engineering. It has close to 15,000 cubic feet of livable space; 10 modules, or living and working areas; a Canadian robot arm that can repair the station from outside; and the capacity to keep five astronauts (including the occasional wealthy rubbernecking space tourist) in good health for long periods. It has gleaming, underused laboratories; its bathroom is fully repaired; and its exercycle is ready for vigorous mandatory workouts.

The only problem with this $156 billion manifestation of human genius -- a project as large as a football field that has been called the single most expensive thing ever built -- is that it's still going nowhere at a very high rate of speed. And as a scientific research platform, it still has virtually no purpose and is accomplishing nothing.

Superb idea. When the ISS got started, Stephen Baxter was interviewed (briefly) on the BBC and was highly condemnatory. I was somewhat appalled. But in the fullness of time, I think he's been shown to be absolutely right. It's hugely expensive and sod-all use.

So, as this article suggests, strap an engine on the sucker and send it somewhere useful...