Justin,
I'm a rabid space fanatic but could care less about ISS. Most of what they're doing in terms of aerospace hardware with ISS was done with MIR and Skylab. There's nothing new here. The hype about studying the effects of weightlessness on human physiology is laughable. The Russians had guys up in MIR for durations longer than roundtrip Mars missions. It's a done deal, we know from MIR that human beings can tolerate a Mars mission. To make matters worse, the "fig leaf" concerning science on ISS dropped away when they limited the crew size to 3 people.
Let's take a step back and look at this. Imagine you've got a scientific lab on a Boeing 747 freighter. How many guys does it take to fly a Boeing 747 freigher? Answer: At least 3, viz. pilot, co-pilot and the cargo master/flight engineer. How many guys would that leave to do science on our hypothetical Boeing 747 scientific station: Answer = 0. Is the ISS easier to "fly" than a Boeing 747? No way. Until the ISS crew size is bigger than 3, you know it's a pure engineering exercise with no real scientific capability.
Gary
Space/Science » in reply to NASA spolight: a thought
ISS