3.1 Motivations for using the ISS

3.1.1 Facilitating international cooperation for lunar exploration

The main motivation for using the ISS is to extend the established international partnership to the next step in space exploration, the Moon. The Moon has a unique potential for inspiring and uniting everyone on Earth because it is the one common object, save the Sun, that virtually everyone sees regularly. Human presence on the Moon would provide everyone with something permanent to look up to in the heavens for inspiration. Going to the Moon as an international effort, rather than as individual national efforts, will have a significant unifying effect for humanity.

Thus far, various space agencies (including Japan, Europe, USA, China, India) have planned their lunar missions independently, without any concrete plans for international cooperation. However, most of their long-term visions generally have a forward attitude about working with other nations. At least for the current ISS participants, the smoothest way may be to simply sprout an international lunar effort from the existing partnership of the ISS program. This complies perfectly with one of the principal objectives of the ISS: "To develop effective international cooperation" (NASA; 1998). The personal trust developed among the partner nations is an invaluable asset in beginning a new collaborative endeavour. For non-ISS participants with lunar visions (including China and India), a lunar program supported by the ISS could encourage these new partners to join.

3.1.2 Political incentives

International projects such as the ISS are often justified based on political motivations. The ISS project has had delays, cost overruns, worries about the participation of various member states, and disagreements in areas that were not even considered when the initial agreements were signed. Despite these difficulties, however, these difficult experiences should not obscure the amazing achievement of an international space station in orbit.

In designing a lunar programme that will be humanity's next step in space, one must give particular thought to the role of the ISS. The peoples of the space-faring nations have invested heavily in the ISS, and their representatives in the various national governments are looking for results from their investment. Furthermore, the ISS programme has built an employment constituency in its member states, and the threat of losing the thousands of high-tech jobs in the aerospace sector is a strong political motivation for continuing beyond the ISS.

One should not view a proposal to use the ISS as a burden, but rather as a significant opportunity. The expertise of those officials who negotiated the ISS agreements, the process they used, and the groundwork they laid are as important to a future programme as the engineers who built the hardware. The management skills and organisational structures are based on many lessons and experiences gained from this challenging international project.

Note that using the ISS to explore the Moon may prove not to be the most efficient solution for these programmes; however, efficiency is not always the driving goal in the political arena. Innovative uses of the ISS can not only extend its utility, but also enhance interest in the ISS and space exploration in general.

3.1.3 Using established ISS assets

In addition to the established partnership, the ISS project represents an invaluable asset in many ways. With one of its objectives being to "Provide a testbed for developing 21st Century technology" (NASA; 1998), the ISS has a great potential to support the development of technology for a lunar program. The following figure of the completed ISS illustrates its capabilities (NASA; 1998):

The ISS can facilitate the initial micro-lunar researches, simulation, and findings for eventual permanent human presence on the Moon. There are various modules and components of the ISS that are invaluable towards a successful lunar programme. A full description of these modules are found in Appendix B.