dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (01/16/85)
NASA will decide soon on the design for a space station. More -- after this. January 16 Space Stations NASA is now studying specific proposals for a space station to be placed in low earth orbit. By the end of the century, it's expected that as many as eighteen people will be living and working aboard the station for months at a time. Both the United States and the Soviets have already had small space stations. Astronauts lived in Skylab from one to three months -- among other things, doing remarkable studies of the star most important to us -- the sun. But the Soviets hold the endurance record for people living in space. Last October, two cosmonauts returned to the ground after spending more than 237 days in their Salyut Seven space station. The idea of a large near-Earth space station has always seemed a part of the natural progression of space exploration. Thanks to movies and books, you probably have your own idea of what such a structure could look like. Now the dream has become a reality -- since we have the technology -- and a quarter of a century of space experience. The choice now is HOW will the space station be built -- which specific scientific, economic and international goals will be achieved. Some scientists have expressed concern that without such stated goals -- so much attention would focus on the space station that other critical space exploration projects would be underfunded. Depending upon the choices being made now, NASA's space station could be the stepping stone for going back to the Moon -- on to the other planets and the asteroids -- and perhaps some day -- eventually to the stars. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin