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- DictionarySpace sta·tion/ˈspā(s) ˌstāSHən/
noun
- 1. a large artificial satellite used as a long-term base for manned operations in space.
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A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in outer space for an extended period of time and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station is an artificial satellite (i.e., a type of orbital spaceflight ).
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- Early concepts and plans
A space station is an artificial structure placed in orbit and having the pressurized enclosure, power, supplies, and environmental systems necessary to support human habitation for extended periods. Depending on its configuration, a space station can serve as a base for a variety of activities. These include observations of the Sun and other astronomical objects, study of Earth’s resources and environment, military reconnaissance, and long-term investigations of the behaviour of materials and biological systems—including human physiology and biochemistry—in a state of weightlessness, or microgravity.
Should humans colonize space with space stations?
Space colonization, with space stations or otherwise, is widely debated. Some argue humans have a moral duty to save our species from extinction, and space colonization is one way of doing so. Others argue that living in space is science fiction and that we should concentrate on improving life on Earth instead of potentially ruining another planet or moon. For more on the debate about colonizing space, visit ProCon.org.
space station, an artificial structure placed in orbit and having the pressurized enclosure, power, supplies, and environmental systems necessary to support human habitation for extended periods. Depending on its configuration, a space station can serve as a base for a variety of activities. These include observations of the Sun and other astronomical objects, study of Earth’s resources and environment, military reconnaissance, and long-term investigations of the behaviour of materials and biological systems—including human physiology and biochemistry—in a state of weightlessness, or microgravity.
Small space stations are launched fully assembled, but larger stations are sent up in modules and assembled in orbit. To make the most efficient use of its carrier vehicle’s capacity, a space station is launched vacant, and its crew members—and sometimes additional equipment—follow in separate vehicles. A space station’s operation, therefore, requires a transportation system to ferry crews and hardware and to replenish the propellant, air, water, food, and such other items as are consumed during routine operations. Space stations use large panels of solar cells and banks of storage batteries as their source of electrical power. They also employ geostationary relay satellites for continuous communication with mission controllers on the ground and satellite-based positioning systems for navigation.
Since 1971, 12 space stations launched into a low orbit around Earth have been occupied for varying lengths of time. In chronological order they are Salyut 1, Skylab, Salyuts 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, Mir, the International Space Station, Tiangongs 1 and 2, and a larger Chinese space station simply called Tiangong (see table).
Between 1952 and 1954, in a series of articles in the popular magazine Collier’s, the German-American rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun presented his vision of a space station as a massive wheel-shaped structure that would rotate to generate “artificial gravity” from centrifugal force, sparing its crew of 1,000 scientists and engineers the drawbacks of weightlessness. It would be serviced by a fleet of winged spaceships employing nuclear engines. One of the station’s primary tasks would be to assemble vehicles for expeditions to the Moon. That concept remained a popular portrait of humankind’s future in space as late as 1968, when the American motion-picture director Stanley Kubrick’s classic science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted a spinning double-wheel station under construction above Earth. On a regular schedule, a fleet of commercial space planes flew people up to the station, from which they could catch a ferry to the Moon.
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In Braun’s day, the development of a space station was thought to be a preliminary stepping-stone to the Moon and planets, but, when Cold War politics prompted Pres. John F. Kennedy in 1961 to commit the United States to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out, there was no time to pursue this logical route. Rather, a single spacecraft would be obliged to ride an expendable rocket into orbit and fly directly to its goal. Nevertheless, even as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plunged deeply into the Apollo program, it studied several space station strategies as part of an Apollo Applications Program, which would exploit vehicles built for the Moon race for more general orbital activities.
Even as 2001 was restating Braun’s ambitious vision to the public, it already was obvious to space engineers that the first real space stations would have to be much simpler than their fictional counterparts. One NASA plan was to have an Apollo spacecraft dock with a spent rocket stage, whereupon its crew would pressurize the rocket’s empty hydrogen-propellant tank with air and install scientific equipment that would turn it into a laboratory for several weeks of occupancy. The U.S. Air Force had its own plan to operate a Manned Orbiting Laboratory fitted with an advanced camera to facilitate military reconnaissance activities. In 1969, however, just as NASA attained Kennedy’s goal of a crewed lunar landing, Pres. Richard M. Nixon canceled the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and restricted the Apollo Applications Program to a single station.
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Apr 30, 2024 · The International Space Station is a multinational orbital laboratory that brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, and scientific research. Learn about its history, assembly, elements, visitors, spacewalks, and 2024 vision from NASA's official website.
International Space Station Facts and Figures - NASA- International Space Station Expeditions - NASA
- International Space Station Gallery - NASA
- International Space Station Overview - NASA
- International Space Station Assembly Elements - NASA
- International Space Station Visiting Vehicles - NASA
- International Space Station Spacewalks - NASA
- International Space Station Visitors by Country - NASA
Apr 24, 2024 · The meaning of SPACE STATION is a large artificial satellite designed to be occupied for long periods and to serve as a base (as for scientific observation) —called also space platform.
May 31, 2019 · A space station is an artificial structure in orbit that supports human habitation for extended periods. Learn about the different types, features, and missions of space stations, from the first Salyut to the International Space Station, and the countries and organizations that have launched them.
Space station definition: an orbiting manned structure that can be used for a variety of purposes, as to assemble or service satellites, refuel spacecraft, etc.. See examples of SPACE STATION used in a sentence.
May 2, 2024 · The International Space Station as of Oct. 4, 2018. station overview. Station Facts and Figures. Crew members live and work aboard the International Space Station orbiting Earth 16 times a day. The orbital outpost is larger than a six-bedroom house with six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window.
