XPost: alt.astronomy
"a425couple" wrote in message news:GHb_M.198964$
w4ec.137816@fx14.iad...
Let's start with why they want to crash the ISS into the atmosphere in
the first place.
Our beloved ISS is getting old and it's expensive to maintain. It costs
about $3-4 billion per year to keep it running, and that money could be
used for other space missions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvezda_(ISS_module)
"It was the third module launched to the station, and provided all of the station's life support systems, some of which are supplemented in the US Orbital Segment (USOS), ..."
"The Mir space station and Zvezda had the same design problem of launching
with all the hardware permanently installed. Russian (and Soviet) space doctrine has always been to fix the hardware onboard instead of simply replacing them like the US Orbital Segment (USOS) does with the 41.3 inch
(105 cm) wide International Standard Payload Racks that can easily fit
through the 51 inch (130 cm) wide hatch openings through the modules
connected via the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM). This means broken but unfixable hardware onboard the Mir modules and Zvezda end up being stuck
there forever and can not be replaced."
"Another reason why Elektrons can not be replaced is because the three
Elektron units that were launched on Zvezda were the last units ever manufactured. The original manufacturers went out of business and the single engineer who made the tweaks for the Elektrons that were installed on Zvezda died with all his secrets and knowledge not passed to anybody else."
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