John Doe wrote in
news:1113516337.4e200d13d08dfa34ddca1e60b6a16eda@t eranews:

Andrew Lotosky wrote:

If history is a lesson and if NASA is really serious about this, we
should at least start seeing mockups or initial simulators in the
next couple years. Note, I stress if they are serious because 2010 is
not far away.

In the past, funding had been made prior to the end of the previous
programme.

This time around, the argument is that funding will become available
once the Shuttle stops flying.

Until there is real funding, NASA can't start to do real work on the
mythical CEV.

You are under some severe misconceptions regarding CEV funding. CEV *is*
getting substantial funding prior to the retirement of the shuttle fleet.
In fact, adjusted for inflation, CEV is getting quite a bit more funding
prior to shuttle retirement than the shuttle itself got prior to Apollo-
Saturn retirement in 1975.

Shuttle now has a very defined and finite mission. The current crop of
astronauts is probably already way too big, especially since NASA need
not worry about retirements more than 5 years from now, and it won't
need a whole astronaut corps during the years/decade when there are no
manned flights, it will need a couple of seasoned astronauts to verify
designs of CEV, test out simulators etc.

A "couple"? Hardly. Have you even bothered to check the history of Apollo
astronauts who worked on the space shuttle program and hung around to fly
on it? It was a lot more than a couple, I can assure you. The shuttle/CEV
transition will be the same. There are more than a "couple" astronauts
assigned to CEV *right now*.

Had the US policy stated last year provided for immediate funding for
the CEV, my opinion would have been different.

Then your opinion should have been different, had you been paying
attention. NASA started funding CEV almost from the day Bush announced the
program. They did so by cancelling SLI and OSP, and reprogramming their
remaining funds to CEV. That amounted to almost $1 billion in FY04 alone.

CEV won't be able to build a moon base "Alpha". At best, it will
emulate Apollo missions and be able to tug a LEM to do short term
lunar excursions. No advancement there. NASA would need to develop
unnamed lunar cargo carriers in order to completement the crew-only
LEM. (If CEV remains in orbit, it is useless for lunar construction).

This is another misconception you have about CEV. CEV is not a single
vehicle, but a modular set of vehicles in the same sense that Apollo CSM/LM
were. An unmanned lunar cargo module would become part of CEV when it's
time to start working on lunar bases. That time is not now, because CEV is
using a "spiral" development approach. Spiral 1 will be LEO only, analogous
to Apollo CSM Block 1. Future spirals will add more capabilities. There is
no need to rush on developing the lunar capabilities since this is not a
crash program like Apollo; first lunar return is not anticipated until
2015-2020.

So, if we don't even know when/where the money will come for CEV,

*We* know when/where the money will come for CEV. *You* apparently don't -
and apparently aren't interested in finding out, since all the information
I've given here has been publicly available for months.

With no manned space programme and no special capabilities that
russian or europe won't have, what will the USA use to barter for a
crew seat on Soyuz to go up to the station after 2010 ?

Hopefully there will be options other than Soyuz after 2010.

Won't the US segment become the equivalent of an abandonned ship that
can be claimed by anyone since the USA will no longer be in a position
to service it ?

No. Maritime salvage law does not apply to space. Hell, maritime salvage
law doesn't apply to government-owned ships anyway.

--
JRF

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