"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" wrote:

:But the ISS has no real mission. They do an expirament once in a while to
:justify having it. If it had been designed as an orbiting warehouse, it
:would have a purpose...stockpiling supplies in advance of a mission to Mars.
:
:If you're going to go to Mars, you have to have enough supplies to get
:there, land, wander around, take off and fly back home. Sending supplies
:directly to Mars is a possibility but if your rendezvous fails, you're
:finished. So stock piling the supplies in Earth orbit makes the most sense.

True, but you don't need a space station for that. It's space. Space
is big. Really, really big. And stuff you hang there will, in the
short term, pretty much stay where you leave it whether there's a
space station there or not.

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn