The ISS is pretty cool and all, and it’s got a sweet view of Earth, but you know what? Welive on Earth. Let’s do some exploring! The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that NASA may have its eye on a more exotic location for the successor to the ISS: out beyond the orbit of the Moon, serving as a gateway to Mars and beyond.
The station, which so far exists only as a “leading candidate” for NASA’s next major mission, would be located at the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange Point (or EML-2), approximately 277,000 miles from Earth, or about 276,800 miles farther from Earth than the ISS is currently. A Lagrange Point is a spot in an orbital system where the gravitational forces of two massive bodies (like the Earth and the Moon) combine to create areas where a much less massive body (like a space station) can park out while not moving relative to the other bodies in the system. There are five of these points, as illustrated below, and once you get to one and stop moving, you can just sit there indefinitely.
via DVICE
Image: Dan Lester/University of Texas
