The most expensive man-made object ever created by humans is in space. The International Space Station ranks in the Guinness World Records as the most expensive thing ever created at a whopping cost of $150 billion. According to CNBC, the space station costs NASA $4 billion a year to manage.
In the early 1980s, NASA chose to establish a modular space station called Freedom. It was realized that it would be beyond the scope of a single country. Consequently, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian space agency Roscosmos, JAXA from Japan, and CSA of Canada also collaborated.
On November 20, 1998, it was launched into space. Originally, the aim of the ISS was to be a laboratory, observatory, and factory while offering low Earth orbit base for missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. While not all of its goals have been achieved, ISS continues to contribute to scientific research, space exploration and educational and cultural outreach.
As per the demand, more modules can be added or removed from ISS. Some of the major features of the ISS include a life support system which boasts of atmosphere control system, a water supply system, food supply facilities, sanitation and hygiene equipment, and fire detection and suppression equipment.
Besides this, ISS contains power control modules and communication systems as part of its features.
Interestingly, the ISS is difficult to maintain so it becomes more expensive by the year as millions of dollars are spent on handling this structure up there floating around in the space.
