Keith’s note: Depending on what effort is in motion, ISS will be shut down in 2030. Maybe a year or two later. There was a session at AIAA ASCEND today “A Microgravity Laboratory of the Future“. Given recent comments by NASA Admininstrator et al that the case for the things ISS was supposed to do having not been made, the issue as to whether CASIS needs to exist arises. The ISS National Laboratory exists in law and was created by Congress. The law stipulates a non-profit entity to manage to U.S. portion of the ISS dedicated to ISS National Lab functions i.e. CASIS. If the International Space Station is dumped into the ocean then CASIS has no ISS National Lab to manage. With all of the future commercial space stations – real and imaginary – setting up their own commercial/academic research ecosystems, the need for CASIS is no longer obvious. Earlier CASIS postings.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing