I’m still kind of bummed out about losing the space. Like, it took a lot of money and time to get all those components up there.
I had the vague sort of impression in past years that once we had the ISS up there, it’d be permanent in a sort of Ship of Theseus sense – we’d just remove and add modules. Over time, the whole thing would doubtless be replaced, but it’d be done piece-by-piece, rather than just letting it be destroyed and starting anew with a smaller structure, that there’d always be enough demand for a large station in Earth orbit. I was hoping that the modularity would buy something more than just making it easier to bring it up piece-by-piece, but also that persistence.
It was the third module launched to the station, and provided all of the station’s life support systems, some of which are supplemented in the US Orbital Segment (USOS), as well as living quarters for two crew members. It is the structural and functional center of the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), which is the Russian part of the ISS. Crew assemble here to deal with emergencies on the station.[7][8][9]
Zvezda provided early living quarters, a life support system, a communication system (Zvezda introduced a 10 Mbit/s Ethernet network to the ISS [29]), electrical power distribution, a data processing system, a flight control system, and a propulsion system. These quarters and some, but not all, systems have since been supplemented by additional ISS components.
That module is probably pretty obsolete and needs to be replaced. But…it also means that there is a redundant, if elderly, system for the most-critical station functionality. Let’s say a micrometeor hits the station and creates a bunch of serious problems. They can probably rely on some of the functionality in that module. I mean, if we start over, we don’t have that redundancy. If we want to replace Zvezda, as an individual module, I get that. I’m just a little sad to see a ton of the modules dumped all at once.
Even if someone wanted to do a major redesign, like, expand the size of the modules, I’d still have thought that it’d be easier to create the “new station” area linked to the “old station”, and then just slowly decommission modules on the “old station”.
Russia’s new primary research module Nauka docked in July 2021,[94] along with the European Robotic Arm which can relocate itself to different parts of the Russian modules of the station.[95] Russia’s latest addition, the Prichal module, docked in November 2021.[96]
I mean, okay, yes aging, but those are relatively-new modules. If the whole station gets dumped because some of the modules are really old, it’s also throwing out the newer modules.