Thought that this report posted on NASA website today might be of interest - its 269 pages long (!):International Space StationScience Research Accomplishments Duringthe Assembly Years: An Analysis of Resultsfrom 2000-2008http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090006763_2009004076.pdf
"the space station has been up for seven years and we haven't seen much in the way of science."Sort of like living in a partly-finished house with no kitchen yet, and complaining that all you get is a bar-b-que and occasional picnics.
The space station's full laboratory and scientific capabilities are still not THERE.
The other thing to remember is that NASA's research plans and use for the ISS are rather narrow in the VSE context, and focused on long-duration human spaceflight issues,
Just wanted to throw this in to help keep this kind of discussion in perspective.
Try 10 years. 10 years and $50 billion dollars later and this ignorant general public has guts to complain?
Like "how much $$$ we will manage to spend on water distillation apparatus and still manage to get it not work correctly"? Is water distillation such a breakthrough in science today?
The perspective is that this thing will rust through before it is completed and producing results as advertised.
I'd rather be happy for what we DO have, not what we MIGHT have.Thanks to DaviD for posting our regular science updates, and keeping those who care in the loop.