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by PicassoCTs 1778 days ago
Wasn't there a plan for "dual" use, aka the next space station can be equipped with a drive and used as a long range spaceship if needs be?
2 comments

This sounds like something from a sci-fi novel.

The only tangible new thing in production is the Angara heavy rocket that will replace Protons. It's an actual thing that exists and flies. There is also a new piloted ship (Eagle/Federation) in development tailored for Angara, but I don't expect to see it in serial production until late 2020s.

Beyond these two things, everything else is basically concept art.

FWIW, it actually is part of an old sci-fi novel, featuring in Arthur C. Clarke's 2010¹. China suddenly joins a race to Jupiter by firing up its "space station".

¹ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010:_Odyssey_Two

There were plans to launch a VASIMIR Ion drive for testing - The ISS was the only thing in space with enough electrical power to test it.

Apparently NASA lost interest around 2015.

I think I read something about assembling a manned mars ship out of re-used ISS or new ISS-like parts, but I can't recall where, or if the proposal was serious.

It’d need additional radiation shielding to operate for long periods outside Earth’s magnetosphere. The Lunar Gateway modules are a reasonable blueprint for this.

Also, even with the ISS’s power budget, the VASIMR module wouldn’t operate continuously. The plan was to charge it and then run it for short 15 minute periods. It could operate for longer if it took more power from the ISS. It seems they are considering other options for a flight demonstration.