Yeah sure there's lots of space, but you have to think of building infrastructure to accommodate storage space. Tehthering to the space station would be much simpler, you package it on earth in the necessary container and send it to the ISS where it stays ready for use.IcePick88 wrote:If they really wanted to build a forward operating base for future missions to Mars or other close planets, they should have built it on the moon and not in low earth orbit. Storage space for things like food, water and fuel is abundant on the moon, but with the ISS, there are limited space storing big amounts of anything really.
On the moon you would have to land it first, which requires a motor which burns lots of fuel, which increases weight and cost substantially over having a some small attitude control thrusters or having it delivered by a delivery craft.
Then when the time comes to launch for Mars you only need to get the vehicle to the ISS, pick up the supplies and go. If you needed to launch from the moon you would have to land on the moon, again wasting fuel, space, weight and money. Then you need to get the supplies loaded after which you need to launch from the moon, for which you need more power to escape the gravity, again requiring lots of fuel and money.
Also, if you were to launch from the ISS you could take as much supplies as you want without having to worry about the weight on the landing gear of the vehicle as you would with the moon.