The International Space Station Program is set for ISS reconfiguration of the International Space Station (ISS) so that it can be ready for future space missions and space travel crews and cargo vessels to arrive there. NASA is doing ISS reconfiguration so that the docking ports at the ISS can be remodeled to accommodate US space vessels that will be carrying such things as supplies, cargo, research tools and even astronauts.
ISS Reconfiguration Involves Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM)
NASA is in a partnership with Boeing and SpaceX companies to provide space travel services starting in 2017. Part of that ISS reconfiguration involves the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), which has been serving as a supply depot for the ISS orbital laboratory. The PMM is quite large at 22 feet long, 14 feet in diameter, with an inside volume of over 2,400 cubic feet and a weight of about 11 tons.
Rearranging the Furniture
The PMM will be taken from its current port facing the Earth and relocated with a robot to put it into the Tranquility’s forward port. Doing this will allow the port on Unity to undergo ISS reconfiguration into a spare berthing area for things like cargo vessels to be placed.
The ISS reconfiguration of the docking ports will be continued later on this year during which two International Docking Adapters (IDAs) will get there via a SpaceX cargo and resupply mission. Once the IDAs are hooked onto the ISS, which is done via Pressurized Mating Adapters 2 and 3, the space vessels that travel craft to the ISS will be able to dock and then equalize the pressure so they can be opened safely by the ISS crewmembers.
ISS Reconfiguration to Prepare for Commercial Vessel Docking
It is vital for the ISS docking ports to undergo this ISS reconfiguration so that it is ready for commercial space vessels that will travel there with supplies and materials. In the past, the ISS only needed to ready for visits from the US Space Shuttle, but after that program ended, there became a need for the ISS to have more than one docking port. The ISS reconfiguration will allow the docking of commercial craft, in which the future ISS crews will travel to and from the ISS for their space missions.
