NASA Talks In Glowing Terms About Centrifuge It Cancelled
#NASA ISS director talks about Centrifuge Module in great detail but makes no mention that it was cancelled 10+yr ago pic.twitter.com/pKLd4XXrWG
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) September 15, 2015
Keith’s note: JSC is webcasting part of their media event with some of the cast of The Martian (it was a last minute decision for JSC to put this on NASA TV BTW). In the movie there is artificial gravity on the ship that goes to/from Mars. The new ISS Program Manager Kirk Shireman spent a lot of time describing what the 2.5 meter Centrifuge Facility could/might provide in terms of supporting human missions to Mars. But Shireman neglected to mention that NASA traded the development of the Centrifuge Facility and Module in one of its bait and switch moves to Japan to offset some ISS costs and then eventually cancelled it outright in 2005. But NASA JSC clearly doesn’t want movie goers to know that NASA did dumb stuff like this.
Funny thing: back in the day (early 1990s) I was Payload Accommodations Manager for that the Space Station Freedom Program Office for the CF and CAM – and JSC fought that thing tooth and nail. Now they love it. Go figure.
“… Funny thing: back in the day (early 1990s) I was Payload Accommodations Manager for that the Space Station Freedom Program Office for the CF and CAM – and JSC fought that thing tooth and nail. Now they love it. Go figure.”
It was and is silly. But that’s what big organizations always do when priorities shift and commands come down from on high. Lots of good projects and sensible designs (at lower levels) get scuttled when The Big PIcture changes as seen from the top. Thus it always has been.
If they really want to learn things about going to and living on Mars on ISS, they will have to launch CAM or its equivalent.
Keith, what’s your sense – could the unit that’s sitting on display in Japan be used, or would they need to start over?
It has been sitting outside, exposed to the elements, for nearly a decade. I personally wouldn’t trust it to hold up. Corrosion could have crept in anywhere, and I suspect it would be cheaper to build new than refurbish.
Its just a piece of junk now.
This was the actual flight hardware?
Yes, though it was not finished, it is just an empty shell. There’s a couple of pictures of it here:
http://forum.nasaspacefligh…
It looks more like a module than a node. I don’t see the four radial berthing ports a node normally has. maybe when the name was changed, they changed the configuration to match.
Well, it is called the Centrifuge Accomodation Module 😀
Are you perhaps thinking of some other cancelled addition to the ISS? The proposed Node 4, perhaps?
It has been outside for a decade like an abandoned car.
Ah, *that* kind of “on display”. Man, that stinks 😐
If the ISS program were really going to be terminated in a few years (which until recently was the official plan) then investing in a large new facility like this would not be easy to justify. If the station is to be kept operating for a decade or two, or potentially indefinitely, than the rationale would be stronger. That said, small animal experiments are not precise analogs for humans for gravitational effects so dependant on body size and structure and voluntary activities like exercise. Extended human stays on the lunar surface might provide greater confidence that mitigation procedures are adequate for the slightly higher gravity on Mars.
Now we’ll never know since it is rotting in a parking lot in Japan.
Even if it means building from scratch, I expect that it would cost a whole lot less to construct and launch CAM that to create and sustain a lunar colony. CAM would, at least, give us some data to work with, perhaps provide some clues about issues that may arise. Right now we have nothing.