Henry Spencer wrote:
Sander Vesik wrote:
As Griffin himself pointed out, Gemini is a better example: it went from
a vague concept to a preliminary unmanned test in 3 years, with a first
manned test about a year after that and a fully operational spacecraft
around six months later. And at that, it was held up by both sheer bad
luck ... and novel technology ...

But surely it should be possible to do such much faster now?

Not very much, even as a crash project. There is a limit to how quickly a
substantial engineering project can be done, even if it is done by a
highly competent team and completely unhampered by budget considerations
and government purchasing rules.

The key here is, of course, to make it a less substantial
engineering project.


-george william herbert