Most of the extra hands, however, will be needed just to keep the station running. With six crewmembers aboard, NASA has scheduled 35 hours a week in total for astronaut-tended science experiments, said Bill Gerstenmaier, the agency's associate administrator for spaceflight. That's more than triple the number of hours the crew now spends on science, though many experiments can be operated remotely by researchers on the ground. The rest of the time is needed just to keep the station operational, Gerstenmaier said. NASA expects to finish construction with eight more shuttle flights. Crew transport is expected to be turned over to Russia next year. Resupplying the outpost will be shared by Russian, European and an as-yet unflown Japanese craft. NASA also plans to hire a commercial launch services firm to deliver cargo to the station. "We really are working pretty well, as a group of nations, to accomplish this project," Griffin said. "It's not perfect but we are really working pretty well together." "We can build on that partnership," Griffin added. "We can take it to the moon, we can take it to Mars, we can take it to the near-Earth asteroids. We can explore the solar system. That may be the longest-lasting value of the program." Related Links: |
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