THE largest artificial object in orbit has long been the butt of cruel jokes. Some call the International Space Station (ISS) a “turkey in the sky”, while others deride the $100 billion spaceship to nowhere. Now it seems that the great sprawling structure may be the key to getting people to asteroids, Mars and beyond.
After nearly 50 years of space travel, we still haven’t figured out how to keep people healthy in low-Earth orbit, let alone on journeys to exotic destinations that could last months or even years. The ISS is the perfect lab to overcome our lack of…
