Before it comes down, what should be saved from the International Space Station?
Before it comes down, what should be saved from the International Space Station?
在国际空间站坠毁之前，我们应该保留些什么？
Humans do not just visit space; they live there, but a major part of that is coming to an end. The platform that made the longest continuous human presence in space possible is becoming history. With NASA and its partners beginning preparations for the destructive end of the International Space Station (ISS) as soon as 2030, those who collect, curate, and study the station are now asking how to preserve the historic and culturally significant artifact, given that it is far too large and complex to keep intact. 人类不仅是造访太空，更是在那里生活，但这一重要篇章即将画上句号。这个让人类得以在太空中实现最长连续驻留的平台正逐渐成为历史。随着美国国家航空航天局（NASA）及其合作伙伴开始筹备国际空间站（ISS）最早于2030年的销毁工作，那些负责收集、策展和研究空间站的人们开始思考：鉴于空间站过于庞大且复杂，无法完整保留，我们该如何保存这一具有历史和文化意义的“文物”？
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on Thursday hosted a three-part panel discussion, bringing together space program officials, museum curators, an archeologist, and an astronaut to begin answering the why, what, and how the ISS might be saved. The sessions were part of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) ASCEND conference in Washington, DC. 史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆周四举办了一场分为三个部分的专题讨论会，汇集了航天项目官员、博物馆策展人、考古学家和宇航员，共同探讨为何、何物以及如何保存国际空间站。这些会议是美国航空航天学会（AIAA）在华盛顿特区举办的ASCEND大会的一部分。
“I had a friend who works on the Artemis [moon] program come up to me when we had 25 years [of continuous human residency]. ‘Congratulations, guys! You made space boring.’ And we did—and that’s a good thing, actually,” said Jacob Keaton, acting director of the International Space Station for NASA’s Space Operations Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in DC. “Not only did we make it boring because of the technical competence that the team brings to the table, we made it boring because it became part of our national fabric, almost. This is just something that we do. We have people in space,” said Keaton. “The ticket tape parades after Apollo were wonderful. That’s a historic achievement—for Artemis, too, absolutely. But for the space station, this is just who we are now. I think it’s underappreciated the amount of work that it took to become boring.” “当我们在空间站实现25年连续驻留时，一位从事‘阿尔忒弥斯’（月球）项目的朋友走过来对我说：‘恭喜你们！你们让太空变得无聊了。’我们确实做到了——而且这实际上是一件好事，”NASA华盛顿总部空间作战局国际空间站代理主任雅各布·基顿（Jacob Keaton）说道。“我们之所以让它变得‘无聊’，不仅是因为团队展现出的技术能力，更因为它几乎成为了我们国家结构的一部分。这就是我们日常所做的事情：我们在太空中有人驻守，”基顿说。“阿波罗计划后的纸带游行非常精彩，那是一项历史性成就——对阿尔忒弥斯计划来说也绝对如此。但对于空间站而言，这就是我们现在的常态。我认为，为了达到这种‘无聊’的境界所付出的努力，被严重低估了。”
From “boring” to “evocative”
从“无聊”到“引人深思”
So how do you capture “boring” and make it accessible in how the program will be exhibited in museums for many years to come? “I like spaceflight nominal, that’s my favorite type of spaceflight,” said Stephen Bowen, acting director of cross-directorate technical integration at NASA and an astronaut who has spent 227 days in space, including 186 on the International Space Station in 2023. “Nominal is the way to be. I don’t need any excitement.” 那么，如何捕捉这种“无聊”并将其转化为未来多年博物馆展览中易于理解的内容呢？“我喜欢平稳的航天飞行，这是我最喜欢的飞行方式，”NASA跨部门技术整合代理主任、曾有227天太空飞行经验（包括2023年在国际空间站的186天）的宇航员斯蒂芬·鲍文（Stephen Bowen）说。“平稳才是常态，我不需要任何刺激。”
Bowen said what should be preserved are the crews’ experiences from the 74 expeditions to date, and those still to come. “Having the opportunity to train around the world and throughout, you get to meet amazing people. Just that aspect can get lost if we don’t continue these international missions, and I think that’s really important going forward,” he said. “I’m not a big person on holding onto things,” said Bowen. “The biggest legacy, and what we should preserve, is just continue to fly similar missions. I think that’s the biggest thing we can continue to do to maintain those specific items.” 鲍文表示，应该保留的是迄今为止74次远征任务中机组人员的经历，以及未来任务的经历。“有机会在世界各地进行训练，你会遇到很棒的人。如果我们不继续这些国际任务，这一层面可能会丢失，我认为这对于未来非常重要，”他说。“我不是一个喜欢执着于实物的人，”鲍文补充道，“最大的遗产，也是我们应该保留的，就是继续执行类似的飞行任务。我认为这是我们能做的、以维持这些特定价值的最重要的事情。”
“We can’t bring everything back from the space station, so I’ll leave it up to others to figure out what that is, and what priority,” he said. Some of those others include Justin Walsh, a professor of art history, archeology, and space studies who performed the first archeological fieldwork to occur off Earth as the creator of the International Space Station Archeological Project, and Jennifer Levasseur, curator of the International Space Station collection at the National Air and Space Museum. “我们无法把空间站的所有东西都带回来，所以我把决定带回什么以及优先级的任务留给其他人，”他说。这些人中包括艺术史、考古学和空间研究教授贾斯汀·沃尔什（Justin Walsh），他作为“国际空间站考古项目”的创始人，进行了首次地球之外的考古实地考察；还有国家航空航天博物馆国际空间站藏品策展人詹妮弗·勒瓦瑟（Jennifer Levasseur）。
“The cupola has long held a fascination with people,” said Levasseur as the moderator of the day’s second panel, speaking of the station’s multi-windowed module. “Obviously, bringing it back may not be the best answer, but how can we preserve that view is a really important one, because it is such a cherished view.” “It’s also a physical space, a space one has to go into to be able to experience, and so there’s something unique and special about that,” she said. “穹顶舱（Cupola）长期以来一直让人着迷，”作为当天第二场讨论会主持人的勒瓦瑟在谈到空间站的多窗模块时说。“显然，把它带回地球可能不是最好的方案，但我们如何保存那种视野是一个非常重要的问题，因为它是一个如此珍贵的视角。”她说：“它也是一个物理空间，人们必须进入其中才能体验，所以它有着独特而特别的意义。”
Given Walsh’s interest in the lived experiences of the crews, his choices centered on the international nature of those present. “I think everybody’s mentioned the [galley] table—that’s a really obvious thing—but I was also thinking of the physical library of books on board the ISS in all of the languages that are spoken by crew members—certainly Russian and English,” he said. “I think it would be great to bring some or all of that back. And then the other thing I was thinking of, because it keeps appearing in my photographs from our experiment on ISS, is there’s a paper notebook. A bound paper notebook that is used by the crew in the Destiny [US laboratory], where they’re writing down the things that they have to do,” said Walsh. “That there is a kind of communication station. They are getting their instructions from the ground, but they’re also leaving notes for each other, and as a collaborative device to use this old technology, it’s just wonderful. I like that as an evocative aspect of the ISS,” he said. 鉴于沃尔什对机组人员生活经历的兴趣，他的选择集中在参与者的国际化特质上。“我认为每个人都提到了（厨房）餐桌——这是一个非常显而易见的选择——但我还在考虑空间站上的实体图书库，涵盖了机组成员所说的所有语言——当然包括俄语和英语，”他说。“我认为带回其中一部分或全部会很棒。另外我还在想一件事，因为它不断出现在我拍摄的空间站实验照片中，那就是纸质笔记本。在命运号（美国实验舱）中，机组人员使用一本装订好的纸质笔记本记录他们必须做的事情，”沃尔什说。“那是一种通信站。他们从地面接收指令，但也互相留言。作为一种使用旧技术的协作工具，这太棒了。我喜欢它作为国际空间站一个引人深思的侧面。”
Space on the rides home
返程载具的空间限制
What is returned from the ISS will ultimately be limited by how much room is available on the dwindling number of vehicles set to land, with cargo remaining in the program. If the space station is de-orbited in 2030… 最终能从国际空间站带回什么，将受到预定着陆的载具数量减少以及项目剩余货运空间的限制。如果空间站于2030年脱离轨道……