Scenes from Space #36

As much as I love seeing pictures of the International Space Station (ISS), I've got mixed feelings about the station itself. Has anyone ever seen the Tom Hanks movie "The Money Pit"? That's what the ISS is becoming. More and more of NASA's budget is being gobbled up by the station, leaving less and less for research satellites and robotic interplanetary missions. And the biggest problem is that with the budget crunches and shuttle problems of the last several years, we can never afford to put enough people on the ISS to actually do any science, which is the stated purpose for building the station in the first place. Instead, we can only afford to keep people on the station just to maintain it. Which means that it has really just become an example of our technological prowess in space, but does not serve any useful purpose. Which is why I'm torn. I'd love to see us do some science with it, or stop sinking money into it.

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