The International Space Station is a large orbital space platform that can support people's long-term stay in space, and although it is called "International", it is not available to everyone.
The reason why the International Space Station is named "International" is only because there are more countries involved in the construction, it was built in 1998, completed the construction task in 2010 and moved into full use. Nominally, the International Space Station is jointly built and operated by 16 countries, and everyone has the right to use it, but in fact, due to the gap in national strength and technical level of various countries, many countries just punch a card and draw a water on it, and there are only two countries that really dominate the International Space Station, that is, the United States and Russia. On the surface, the International Space Station, jointly built by multiple countries, can absorb the technological advantages of each country and share the construction costs, but there are also some hidden dangers, such as separation.
Why is there a hidden danger of separation on the International Space Station?
Anything, as long as there are two people involved, there may be contradictions, let alone two countries. For example, at a certain time, a certain country is sanctioned by other countries for some reason, then this sanction may spread to the sky, so there may be a crisis of separation. So if the ISS is really going to break up, can it be technically done? If you want to separate the family, you must first calculate your respective family properties, the International Space Station is composed of multiple modules, including the Zvezda service module, search micro experimental module 1, Dawn micro experimental module 2, Science experimental module, new dock docking module and Aurora multi-functional cargo module are all developed by Russia, in addition to the Aurora multi-functional cargo compartment, the total mass of the remaining modules is about 50 tons, which is all the belongings of Russia after the separation.
Why remove the multifunctional cargo hold of the Aurora?
As we all know, the multi-functional cargo module of the Aurora is the first module of the International Space Station, but the property rights of this module developed by Russia belong to NASA, so if it is separated, this module is to be left for others. The International Space Station is a whole, there is a dependency relationship between the various modules, but this dependence is not reciprocal, because the Zvezda service module and the Science experimental module belonging to Russia can achieve independent power supply, and several miniature experimental modules, although dependent on NASA's derivative solar wing power supply, can be temporarily suspended, so at the technical level, Russia can separate its own module from the International Space Station, and in a sense, he has done so.
According to the original plan, Russia would have continued to build two large 20-ton experimental modules and placed them on both sides of the node module of the new terminal, but now they have changed their plans.
These two large experimental modules will continue to be built, but they will no longer be docked to the International Space Station, but will be used to build a space station belonging to the Russians themselves, that is, "orbital service station", after all, who to cooperate with, is not as good as the word "autonomous". So we are lucky, the International Space Station excluded us, but promoted the "independence" of the continental space technology field, and now the "Tiangong Space Station" we have built has far surpassed the "orbital service station" in Russia's plan in all aspects.
Although the idea of the separation of the International Space Station is technically feasible, it is actually unlikely to happen, because it is feasible from the perspective of Russia, but it is not feasible from the perspective of the United States.
As mentioned earlier, there is a dependency relationship between the various modules of the International Space Station, but this dependence is not reciprocal, and the reality is that Russia's dependence on NASA is small, while NASA's dependence on Russia is large. In the International Space Station, the orbital change and attitude control of the space station are controlled by the Russian module, of course, the NASA module can also perform attitude control, but this needs to rely on the support of the attitude control power system of the Russian module, and the NASA module cannot carry out orbital lifting.
Moreover, NASA is the main recipient of the benefits of the International Space Station.
19 of the existing 31 scientific research cabinets on the space station are exclusive to NASA, while Russia is more of a hard worker in the International Space Station, the orbit control of the space station, the transfer of astronauts, these are Russia's activities, and the participation in on-orbit scientific research is not high. On the one hand, NASA relies heavily on the Russian module, and on the other hand, if the International Space Station is paralyzed, the biggest victim is NASA itself, so NASA is absolutely unwilling to see the International Space Station split. It is precisely because of this that whether in the past or now, no matter what the relationship between the United States and Russia is, it will never affect cooperation in the sky, and whenever there is tension, NASA will be the first to come out and pledge that cooperation on the International Space Station will not be affected. So, unless Russia is bent on breaking up, the ISS will run until it is decommissioned.