3 ms·

It doesn't have to be completely self-sufficient. They have 15 pressurized modules, I don't understand why 1 of them can't be dedicated to advance this vital te

• bsilvereagle 11y ago
  It's important to remember that the ISS is a multi-national joint effort. If NASA wanted to convert a non-NASA module to grow plants, it would require the approval of that module's sponsoring agency. I don't think a lot of people realize how inefficient the operation of the ISS is. Take the JEM airlock for example. The JEM airlock is a Japanese (JAXA) module that has a novel slide table which is remotely controlled from Earth. So an experiment can be placed on the slide table, and then can be moved into space from Earth - without astronaut intervention. This offloads time from the astronaut's (packed) schedule to the ground control's schedule. However, NASA cannot operate this airlock! Only JAXA can! So, for the experiment to use the table, JAXA must agree to staff their ground control to operate the lock which has been a problem, causing extreme under-utilization of the lock. NASA is more than willing to take full operational responsibility of the JEM airlock to free up astronaut time, but as far as I know, JAXA hasn't been willing to train any NASA controllers. *This information is going on 2 years old and things may have changed recently.