NASA has announced plans to build a new space station called the Space Station Expanded (SSE). The goal of SSE is to provide astronauts with more room to live and work.
The International Space Station was built in 1998 at a cost of $150 billion. Since then, NASA has spent over $100 billion building the ISS. In order to continue expanding the station, NASA is looking into ways to expand its living quarters.
NASA is working on a plan to attach a module to the existing ISS. This would allow them to add additional rooms and increase the amount of living space. They hope to complete construction by 2024.
How Will This Benefit Us?
In addition to providing more living space for astronauts, there are many other benefits that come from having an expanded space station. For example, it could be used as a research platform where scientists can study how humans adapt to microgravity, how plants grow in zero gravity, and what effects extended periods of time in outer space have on our bodies.
This technology also allows astronauts to spend longer amounts of time in space than they currently do. It would give people a chance to travel further out into the solar system. And when we send people to Mars, having a larger space station will allow them to stay there much longer which will help them explore their surroundings and hopefully find life elsewhere in the universe.
What Does All This Mean?
We’re getting closer to sending people farther away from Earth than ever before. NASA’s goal is to put people on Mars by the 2030s and if we want to achieve this goal, we need to keep pushing forward. Having a bigger space station will help us reach this goal.
We already know that the ISS works because it has been continuously supporting human lives for almost two decades. We also know that the ISS is safe because of the strict safety protocols in place. So we don’t really have any reason not to believe that attaching another module to the ISS will make it even safer.
So far, everything we’ve done in space has worked out just fine. There’s no reason to think that adding another module won’t work out too.
So while we may still be years away from sending people to Mars, we’re getting closer everyday.