1 How much does the ISS cost?
Recall Video 2 in Week 4 which stated that the ISS alone had cost between US$140 and 160 billion!
Figure 1 shows the cost history of the ISS for the period between the financial years (FY) 1995 and 2002. Note that 2002 has two cost elements – ‘assembly complete’ and ‘core complete’. Please ignore the last column for ‘core complete’ as these values are taken forward into 2004 and 2006.
Now use Figure 1 to complete Activity 1.
Activity 1 The cost history of the ISS
Allow approximately 10 minutes
Choose the correct answer to each of the following questions.
1. Which year was the most expensive?
2. What was the total cost in billion dollars between 1995 and 2002?
3. What was the average cost between 1995 and 2002? (Hint: divide the total cost in question 2 by the number of years.)
Now you will consider how much space exploration costs individual space companies, notably NASA.
OpenLearn - Microgravity: living on the International Space Station
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