Decius wrote:

Jello wrote:

Send the ISS somewhere.

The ISS, you see, is already an interplanetary spacecraft -- at least potentially. It's missing a drive system and a steerage module, but those are technicalities. Although it's ungainly in appearance, it's designed to be boosted periodically to a higher altitude by a shuttle, a Russian Soyuz or one of the upcoming new Constellation program Orion spacecraft. It could fairly easily be retrofitted for operations beyond low-Earth orbit. In principle, we could fly it almost anywhere within the inner solar system -- to any place where it could still receive enough solar power to keep all its systems running. nullnull

HERE HERE!

Dude, that thing is not ready for long distance travel. Just a few months ago the toilet broke and they had to ship one up from earth. What the fuck are they going to do if that happens in outer space?

Use the experience they got from fixing it, after it operated largely trouble free for many years, to fix it again? Install backup toilet in propulsion module?

Its doable.

RE: It's All Decked Out. Give It Somewhere to Go. - washingtonpost.com