/sci/ - Science & Math

So I did some more reading on this...

TL;DR version:
>the cis-lunar station is better than going to the Moon or Mars or whatever
>the station has been in the works for a long time
>it's a joint project by ISS partners Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, and the USA
>NASA wants to include commercial partners as much as possible (e.g. Bigelow)
>can support multiple simultaneous deep space projects including Mars missions, a Moon base, and even asteroid capture
>plans are almost finalized and will be submitted to respective governments for approval and funding (June or July)
>construction could begin as soon as next year

Long version:
>Why a cis-lunar station instead of something like a Moon base or Mars base?
Different countries have different exploration interests, for instance NASA has it's sights set on Mars, but Russia is more interested in the Moon. Turns out a really good way to serve everyone's space exploration interests is through a cis-lunar station. Because the cis-lunar station is a compromise between partner nations (Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, and the USA), it will be designed to support multiple deep space projects as well as it's own science goals.

There's also something critical here: proposed Mars/Moon/asteroid missions have a hard time surviving election cycles and budget cuts, but joint projects like the ISS can survive long term. By doing a joint cis-lunar station, it will be easier to do more interesting missions like going to Mars/Moon/asteroid because the infrastructure and science will already be there and waiting.

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