Re: Return to the moon

On Wed, 5 Oct 2005 17:09:14 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Swallow
<am.swallow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Josh Hill wrote:
>[snip]
>>
>> Now if you had something cool like a 2001-style moon shuttle that made
>> round trips . . . but even that probably wouldn't involve a space
>> station, since you'd just transfer from the earth orbiter directly to
>> the moon shuttle. I don't think a manned space station starts to make
>> sense for moon missions until you're dealing with major in-space
>> repairs to a moon shuttle, and we're pretty far from being able to do
>> that.
>
>The proposed departure stage rocket *is* a 2001-style moon shuttle, it
>just has to carry more fuel so that we can bring the engines back from
>moon orbit.
>
>In the thread "New Reusable Orbiter" I discuss the changes needed to
>make the departure into a general purpose vehicle able to do other missions.
><http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated/browse_thread/thread/a041b9d0a92c831c/310c70f0242fa945?utoken=6g_dqUQAAADX0lip0WaN1QD1E15-lx6xnzC0oPDmFi0aR6b_nVEFcf8bXDSlpuzNFnYB9PsEnmY6_ewlXBPh2T-NAHCpLGxB4b4M91XBUI4gMC_QgcHrCw#310c70f0242fa945>
>
>Andrew Swallow
>
>p.s. Sorry about the weird characters that appear in the referenced
>posting, I do not know where they came from.

That might work. Unfortunately, as you said, you'd still have to loft
fuel, and you'd need a spacecraft reliable enough to make several
missions without a checkout and overhaul, as well as the technology to
refuel it in space.

The CEV already makes a round trip, so there's no benefit to using
that in a moon shuttle unless you use reusable orbiters for the trip
from earth. I can't see any reason to use ISS, which is in the wrong
orbit and wouldn't have anything to contribute.

OTOH, once we can manufacture fuel on the moon or from NEO objects, it
will start to make sense. You could make a /real/ DC-Y-style moon
shuttle that would run maybe 10 missions, more as you gained the
ability to make repairs in orbit. At that time a space station would
begin to make sense because it could serve as a space dock, but it
would have to be in the right orbit!

--
Josh

"It was amazing I won. I was running against peace and prosperity
and incumbency." - George W. Bush

.

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