Re: Space Shuttle Grounding....depressing....

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 00:04:01 +0000 (UTC), Wesley Struebing
<strueb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:56:40 +0000 (UTC), Josh Hill
><usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:08:54 +0000 (UTC), "Tom" <npsdsa@xxxxxxxxx>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Josh Hill wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm no great fan of President Bush's, and I question some details of
>>>> his proposal, such as the focus on the moon rather than Mars, but I
>>>> think he deserves credit for moving us in the right direction here --
>>>> for breaking the logjam that has had NASA running in circles for so
>>>> many years . . .
>>>>
>>>Deep Space exploration will most likely require extremely large ships
>>>to accomplish, due to the need for food and oxygen production, adn
>>>recycling of waste. It would not be feasible to launch such a vessel
>>>from Earth, so basically at some point they will need to build orbiting
>>>ship yards where deep space vessels can be assembled. My guess is that
>>>a moon base would be needed for that. (Supplies, personell, emergency
>>>services, seeing as how weather on Earth can affect the ability o take
>>>off in a shuttle).
>>
>>That would work if the spacecraft were manufactured on the moon, but
>>we're pretty far away from that! So you'd have to launch the items
>>from earth, send them to the moon, assemble them, and launch them
>>again from the moon. It's a lot cheaper to assemble components in
>>earth orbit. AFAIK, no space docks will be necessary. Some may be sent
>>to Mars ahead of time, where they'll manufacture fuel for the return
>>voyage.
>
>Initially, cheaper in earth orbit, yes. But you're wrong about having
>to ship stuff to the moon, assembling it there and then going "out
>there." The idea is to use the moon's resources to build the ship and
>fuel it.
>
>Startup is NOT going to be cheap, though...

Since we're talking about only a few Mars missions at best, it seems
to me it would be a lot more expensive to design, test, build, move
and operate the moon-based factory and mining equipment than it would
be to loft the extra fuel from earth. All for a savings of what? A few
flights of a Saturn V-class vehicle?

If, OTOH, we're just talking about manufacturing fuel, you could set
the vehicle down on the moon, make the fuel, and then lift off again.
But as I understand it, it's harder to make fuel on the moon than it
is on Mars, since the former lacks an atmosphere.

--
Josh

"You know I could run for governor but I'm basically
a media creation. I've never done anything. I've
worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But
that's not the kind of profile you have to have
to get elected to public office." - George W. Bush

.

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