For those unfamiliar with orbital mechanics & aerospace engineering, who wonder about raising the ISS into a much-higher (long-term stable) orbit, or fixing it

For those unfamiliar with orbital mechanics & aerospace engineering, who wonder about raising the ISS into a much-higher (long-term stable) orbit, or fixing it up and continuing to use it: Trying to raise the orbit: The ISS orbits very close to the "bottom" of the zone of vaguely-stableish LEO orbits. Really-stable, "vacant" orbits, suitable for long-term inert storage - those are far, far higher. Think of having a reproduction Viking longboat on the beach. Pushing it "down", into the sea, is work - but not too much. Vs. if you wanted to push that longboat uphill, to an elevation of a few thousand feet? Vastly more work. Trying to keep using it, long after the lifetime that the Materials Engineering & Mechanical Engineering experts designed it for, might turn out like this: https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/falling-to-pieces-the-near-crash-of-aloha-airlines-flight-243-18f28c03f27b https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/falling-to-pieces-the-ne... - except with all the astronauts dead. As complex structures under load (like pressurized ISS modules) age, the properties of the materials they're made of change - often for the worse. And microscopic cracks form & grow, joints (intentional or not) work and wear, inelastic deformation accumulates and shifts stress to areas not designed to withstand it, and so on.