NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers replaces components on a Thermal Amine Scrubber. Credit: NASA.

Introduction

Sustainspace has long covered space life support, which has largely focused on the International Space Station (ISS) and on proposed aspirational crewed spacecraft. However, for the first time in a long time, there has been a crewed deep space mission, the Artemis missions.

Thus far, flown Artemis crewed hardware is limited to the Orion capsule, provided by Lockheed Martin. The Orion is larger than the previous Apollo crewed lunar capsules. While the technology on the Orion capsules is not particularly ground-breaking, it is of interest, and provides a good review of human requirements for missions of about a week or so in duration.

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ISU main building side view (credit Mark Ciotola)

(This is a story in progress.)

Background

Recent developments with the International Space University will be of great interest to some SustainSpace readers. Therefore we have endeavored to investigate and document some of the developments in this case.

International Space University was founded as a nonprofit corporation, holding its first public event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1987. It was a nonprofit corporation registered in the State of Massachusetts in the United States. The current iteration of this organization is called “International Space University, Inc.” (hereinafter ISU Org).

It first grew into a summer-long program, then it established a masters degree program and central campus at illkirch-Graffentaden in Strasbourg, France. The central campus was held under a different entity, also called the “International Space University”, but as a French association (hereinafter ISU Association). ISU Association became insolvent. It not longer exists, and its assets are in liquidation proceedings. There is a struggle over who will control the remaining assets, especially the “International Space University” trademark and name.

The Liquidation Case

By Olivia Mah.

This section discusses major events and documents in the liquidation and related cases.

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Credit NAS.

Every ten years, the National Academy of Sciences conducts a study of particular areas of space research and makes findings and recommendations. The latest version of Thriving in Space: Ensuring the Future of Biological and Physical Sciences Research: A Decadal Survey for 2023-2032 (2023), hereinafter referred to was the Survey. is being unveiled. While the final version is not yet out, Sustainspace has viewed a substantial-finished preprint and presents several important part of the report related to space life support, plant research, and sustainability.

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Background

For the past several years, there has been much hullabaloo regarding proposed private space stations. Yet several current proposals seem much more substantive than chiefly aspirational proposals in the past. That the International Space Station (ISS) has less than one decade of expected life remaining has accelerated both investment as well as government interest and funding. Reduced launch costs provide a further foundation for  the tangibility of such proposals.

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