Ask Slashdot: Should the ISS Go Commercial?

Slashdot reader stevent1965 writes:
The costs of running the International Space Station are a burden for NASA’s budget. It has cost over $100 billion to construct and annual operating expenses run between $3 and $4 billion per year, representing a substantial percentage [about half] of NASA’s manned space exploration budget. What to do, what to do? A potential solution is to turn over operations (if not ownership) to private enterprise (Elon, are you listening?) Commercialization of space exploration may be anathema to some, but there is ample precedent for the government ceding control of publicly-funded endeavors to private enterprises. The Internet is the obvious example. Why not give corporations control of the ISS? Are there drawbacks? Benefits? Which will prevail? Let’s hear your opinions. Sunday NPR noted that a few weeks ago NASA held a press event at Nasdaq’s MarketSite to announce and promote “the commercialization of low Earth orbit,” with astronaut Christina Koch beaming down a video from space to say that the crew was “so excited” to be a part of NASA “as our home and laboratory in space transitions into being accessible to expanded commercial and marketing opportunities” (as well as to “private astronauts.”) But there are big logistical and financial hurdles. (Even NASA admits to NPR that revenue-generating opportunities first “need to be cultivated by the creative and entrepreneurial private sector.”) So leave your own best thoughts in the comments — the how, why, what if, or why not. Should the International Space Station go commercial?