It always kills me when people are discussing ways to bring things put up there back down. Since it’s so expensive to get stuff UP there, the “disposal method” should be cheap, reusable or ion/scavenged material driven propulsion units that will push the stuff to higher orbit, like a geostationary or Lagrange point junkyard, or push it to the moon to an area most likely to be amenable to building a base there.
They want to accelerate the decommissioning of the ISS now, and precisely due to the fact that it’s got a bunch of components wearing out, suffering cracks, etc it is THE best laboratory for people to get field experience dealing with failure in space. It’s not going to be an enjoyable experience to try to deal with an ad hoc repair or failure half way to Mars or during return...
I agree. The ISS was planned obsolescence. The O’Neill habitat is designed as a Lagrange point station and would generate its own gravity, food, air, etc. It would be permanent and a way point for most demons to the moon, asteroids, Mars and beyond.