14 DAY TRIAL // Jean-Jacques Dordain, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), recently said that he wants a firm decision on the International Space Station (ISS) to be taken this year. He argued that, until now, there are no clear plans by any space agency involved in the programs to extend the functionality of the space facility beyond 2015. As such, Dordain stated, any decision to prolong the program will have to be taken in time, and five years of ahead planning is relatively little when it comes to a wide-scale space project such as the ISS, the BBC News reports.
Also, there is no funding allotted for this initiative beyond 2015, the ESA official announced. This means that, theoretically, if plans to continue with the ISS until 2020 are set in place, governments will have sufficient time to make a decision and put it into effect. However, any further delays could mean that some countries involved in the project will not be able to support it on time. The major contributors to the orbital laboratory are the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation, Japan and Canada. All these states need to come to an agreement together, on what course of action to follow in the coming decade, Dordain stated.
The Director General also added that only a prolonged time line would draw more scientists to the ISS. With only five years of the current schedule remaining, interest for the possibilities provided by the laboratory is diminishing in the international scientific community. Research groups appear to no longer see the point of investing resources in an uncertain program, analysts reveal. “I am convinced that stopping the station in 2015 would be a mistake because we cannot attract the best scientists if we are telling them today 'you are welcome on the space station but you'd better be quick because in 2015 we close the shop',” Dordain said.
“The decision must be taken early enough to put the budget in place, to build the hardware necessary and to decide on which transportation policy we shall use between 2015 and 2020. There are lot of aspects to be discussed and if decisions are not taken by the end of this year – beginning of next year – it will become more and more difficult to have the approach under which we will exploit the space station,” he added. A meeting on this issue, featuring all major players in the ISS project, is scheduled to take place in Japan later this year.