The International Space Station, sometimes called the ISS for short, was first launched in 1998 (European Space Agency, 1999). Although this does not seem to be very long ago, it was seventeen years ago—almost before cell phone technology really took off around the world. As a result, the technology that was available in 1998 was very different from the technology that is available today; thus, there are many things on the International Space Station that have been upgraded or replaced since the International Space Station was first built in 1998 (European Space Agency, 2015). The ISS is indeed a marvel of human engineering—not just because it was a global effort to build in the first place, but also because it is a piece of technology that continues to grow and evolve over time as technology changes and as the functions of the station itself change (European Space Agency, 2015).
The assembly of the ISS was unlike anything that had happened before in astronautics, and was an extremely exciting event for science (Harland and Catchpole, 2002). The space station itself was sent into orbit by module (Harland and Catchpole, 2002). The first module was named Zarya, which was quickly joined by three other modules (European Space Agency, 1999). After Zarya was launched, the Unity Module was launched later in 1998, making the first two modules of the space station (European Space Agency, 1999).
It was not until 2000 that Zvezda was launched; the launch of the third module made the international space station a triad of modules (Harris, 2002). These three modules were attached together in 2000, making the space station large enough for scientific work, but not large enough to be manned full time, which was the long-term goal of the International Space Station and the astronauts that worked for the project (Harris, 2002). The three modules remained in place together for a year before the Destinty module, a lab module, was launched in 2001 (Harris, 2002). Zvezda changed a lot of things for the ISS, and meant that a number of modules that were scheduled were unneeded; this is the perfect example of a time when technology improved and changed the general structure and construction of the modules of the International Space Station (International Space Station gets new lease on life, 2014)
The next important launch was the launch of the Destiny module, which was a turning point for the International Space Station in many ways. This lab module provided astronauts with an important place to perform experiments in space which was not available before; they were able to begin long-term experiments about the effect of low gravity on living things, which would be very important if humanity were to ever invent a way to travel space for very long periods of time (Reichhardt, 2015). The final modules to be added recently were the Columbus Orbital Facility and the Japanese Experiment Module, both of which were put in place in 2008-2009 (International Space Station gets new lease on life, 2014).
Adding modules to the International Space Station is a somewhat expensive prospect, which has to be considered carefully as the technology available improves (International Space Station gets new lease on life, 2014). As of right now, there are 15 modules on the ISS; each of these modules serves a specific purpose and is fundamentally important to the function of the ISS (International Space Station gets new lease on life, 2014).
The creation of an International Space Station was an old idea, dating back to before the end of the Cold War (Logsdon, 1991). The technology needed to build the ISS was not necessarily available when the idea was first proposed, but by 1998, the technology was available and ready for launch. The development and installation of the 15 pods that currently exist in the ISS has been a marvel of both engineering and international cooperation (European Space Agency, 2015).
The addition of Zvezda is the perfect example of changing technologies and changing expectations for the ISS. Because space is so hostile to life, the ISS was unmanned for a long period of time; however, Zvezda brought with her a number of technological advances that allowed the ISS to become a manned experimental mission (Kramer, 2015).
Today, the Space Station is still changing. There are still many more additions that NASA and other organizations around the world plan to make to the International Space Station. One of the benefits and problems of the constant construction is that plans can be altered as technology improves—this also means that sometimes missions can be slowed down because of changes in available technology. Disasters with technology can also cause problems for the International Space Program—for instance, when the Challenger disaster occurred, all space missions were grounded by NASA until they could determine what caused the disaster. Changes in technology are, of course, a boon to space travel—but they also present problems as well.
References
European Space Agency, (1999). International Space Station overview. Air & Space Europe, 1(4), pp.28-33.
European Space Agency, (2015). Building the International Space Station. [online] Available at: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Station/Building_the_International_Space_Station2 [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].
Harland, D. and Catchpole, J. (2002). Creating the International Space Station. London: Springer.
Harris, P. (2002). Creating the International Space Station. Space Policy, 18(2), pp.169-170.
International Space Station gets new lease on life. (2014). Physics Today.
Kramer, M. (2015). One-Year Space Station Mission Launches Today: Watch It Live. [online] Space.com. Available at: http://www.space.com/28949-one-year-space-mission-launch-webcast.html [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].
Logsdon, J. (1991). International cooperation in the space station programme. Space Policy, 7(1), pp.35-45.
Reichhardt, T. (2005). International Space Station: Testing times. Nature, 436(7053), pp.902-903.
