Note: this is the second part of the post about the International Space Station.
So after billions of investments, it was finally completed in 2011. However, it is not finished; it continues to be upgraded and new modules added. It has cost the world $150 billion and counting. So, what on earth (or space in this case) is it for?
As I already mentioned, microgravity research is the biggest research going on on the ISS right now. It is not limited to just the human’s reaction to lack of gravity; breakthroughs are being made regularly in medicine, materials science, as well as space exploration technology. As the world moves towards space exploration and human migration to other planets, it’s crucial to have a docking station for rockets and satellites to refuel, etc, if they were to go longer journeys than mankind could even imagine.
One of the specific major breakthroughs was the CRISPR gene-editing technology in space. So what a group of NASA scientists did in 2019 was edit yeast DNA to study how cells repair themselves in space. Their results was a major milestone in gene research for it demonstrated gene editing is possible in space, so it is possible on Earth. Furthermore, it means we can tweak humans and crops to survive in different conditions by just genetically modifying DNA strands.
The ISS stands even today as a testament to human ingenuity and it is with a heavy heart that we have let go of this magnum opus of mankind as it is set to retire in 2030. There will be a new one, but it will not be the ISS.
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