The Science Actually Done on the ISS

Curmudgeon's uncovers that science is actually done on the Space Station.

What are among the items considered vital to research before humanity leaves this nest? Finding out how your "health" changes in space. And if that didn't stimulate your brain, they also have Space Station Alpha astronauts tracking how they sleep in space. But oh, it gets better mind you, they also have experiments on how plants grow in space.

Now I know finding out how to stop bone marrow loss in zero-gee environments is a must if people plan on living in zero-gee environments in space.

But the study on sleep? And we've had study after study regarding human health in zero-gee environments. At what point does it start to become overkill in the context of it potentially pulling away resources from actual space exploration?

Also what happens if after years of research we find there is no way to reverse the effects of zero-gee on the human body? We wouldn't just give up. We would just set "recommended" limits to the exposure of an astronaut to a zero gravity environment.

Creating artificial gravity using centrifugal forces has been a long proposed solution to long duration space missions. I find it hard to believe that some sort of recommendation hasn't already materialized from past experiments on how humans are effected in space. And in that case why are they still studying this issue? Do they not trust their results?

At what point do we stop studying and start actually doing?