Thus placing above 400 km can increase the cost proportionally. To place a spacecraft at a higher orbit would need more fuels and rockets.Īlso, it would take re-boosting and maintenance costs according to its height. Reduction in costīefore going on any project cost must be considered, especially when we talk about rocket science. So while considering the protection for astronauts, placing the international space station above 700 km is dangerous. Under 700 kilometers the earth’s environment is shielded and is safe for human astronauts. Staying in this harmful radiation region for a long time can cause many health issues for the human body. You maybe know it, the magnetosphere of the earth protects the earth’s creatures from the sun and cosmic radiation.Ībove 700 km from the earth’s surface, the Van Allen Radiation Belt of the magnetic field exists that possess energetic charged particles. So this is not significant to place an object below 300 kilometers to the earth’s surface because it can cause an atmospheric and gravity drag. And thus to maintain its altitude orbital boosting is done by space agencies several times a year. And atmospheric drag will slowly lower the orbit and finally, the object will fall on earth due to earth’s gravity.Įven at 400 km, there is little atmospheric drag that causes ISS to decay at an altitude of around 2 km/month. If we place an object very close to the earth’s atmosphere where the pressure is high, it may burn up due to high friction with gas molecules.īelow 300 km the atmospheric gas molecules are quite enough to make a significant drag on any large object. The pressure of the earth’s atmosphere decreases with height. There were mainly three main factors that scientists considered before placing the ISS in orbit: “This height for ISS, will enable its user to take advantage of human ingenuity in connection with its low gravity environment, the near-perfect vacuum of space and vantage point for observing the earth and the rest of the universe.” ![]() According to a memorandum between NASA and Russian Space Agency Roscosmos: You know there are a lot of possible advantages of this orbit. So here is an interesting question, why the space station is just around 400 km above the earth’s surface? Could it be lower or higher than this specific point? And what if they change the orbital height of ISS? Why ISS is 400 km above the earth’s surface? This is called the orbital boosting of the space station. So maintaining its orbit takes approximately 7.5 tonnes of chemical fuels that cost around $210 million.
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