A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit 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). Stations must have docking ports to allow other spacecraft to dock to transfer crew and supplies. The purpose of maintaining an orbital outpost varies depending on the program. Space stations have most often been launched for scientific purposes, but military launches have also occurred.
As of 2022, there are two fully operational space stations in low Earth orbit (LEO) – the International Space Station (ISS) and China's Tiangong Space Station (TSS). While the ISS has been permanently inhabited since October 2000 with the Expedition 1 crews, the TSS will do so with the Shenzhou 14 crews in June 2022. The ISS is used to study the effects of spaceflight on the human body, as well as to provide a location to conduct a greater number and longer length of scientific studies than is possible on other space vehicles. China's Tiangong Space Station is scheduled to finish its phase 1 construction by the end of 2022 with the addition of two lab modules. India has also proposed to build a space station in the coming decades. There have been numerous decommissioned space stations, including USSR's Salyuts, Russia's Mir, NASA's Skylab, and China's Tiangong 1 and 2.
Sample Chapter(s)
Preface (35 KB)
Components of the Book:
- Chapter 1.
Colour remote sensing of the impact of artificial light at night (I): The potential of the International Space Station and other DSLR-based platforms
- Chapter 2.
From Value to Valuation: Pragmatist and Hermeneutic Orientations for Assessing Science on the International Space Station
- Chapter 3.
Molecular repertoire of Deinococcus radiodurans after 1 year of exposure outside the International Space Station within the Tanpopo mission
- Chapter 4.
Particle Vibration, an Instrument to Study Particle Accumulation Structures On Board the International Space Station
- Chapter 5.
Which precocial rodent species is more suitable as the experimental model of microgravity influence on prenatal musculosketal development on international space station
- Chapter 6.
Succession and persistence of microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance genes associated with International Space Station environmental surfaces
- Chapter 7.
Whole metagenome profiles of particulates collected from the International Space Station
- Chapter 8.
Multi-drug resistant Enterobacter bugandensis species isolated from the International Space Station and comparative genomic analyses with human pathogenic strains
- Chapter 9.
EUV data processing methods of the Solar Auto-Calibrating EUV Spectrometers (SolACES) aboard the International Space Station
- Chapter 10.
Characterization of the total and viable bacterial and fungal communities associated with the International Space Station surfaces
- Chapter 11.
Feedback tracking control of optimal reference trajectories for spacecraft relative motion
- Chapter 12.
Machine learning for effective spacecraft operation: Operating INTEGRAL through dynamic radiation environments
Readership:
Students, academics, teachers and other people attending or interested in the Space Station
Emanuel Ott
Space Biochemistry Group, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Denise Kölbl
Space Biochemistry Group, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Tetyana Milojevic
Space Biochemistry Group, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Elke Rabbow
Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany
Petra Rettberg
Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany
and more...