TVDad Jim wrote:

Questions:

What are the risks of having an unpiloted CEV in orbit, rather than
leaving a pilot onboard while the LSAM lands?



That depends on if you leave the CEV under the command of a slightly
defective HAL-9000 series computer while the crew is not aboard it. ;-)

How have these risks changed since the days of manned lunar CSMs? Is it
just better automation available? Was having a CMP onboard just a
"consolation prize" in case the LM didn't make it back for a LOR?



Well, you did get the advantage that either the Apollo or the LM could
do the docking procedure if one suffered some sort of RCS problem. It
will be interesting to see if they go with manual or automatic docking
on this design. Knowing NASA, it will be manual- which pretty well
botches using the CEV as a unmanned cargo craft the way Soyuz got turned
into Progress.

How do four astronauts on the Moon make it a "better" mission than
three astronauts on the Moon? It sounds like a lot of ballast (both in
body mass and support materiel) to land and re-launch.



They had to show some improvement over Apollo, or there would be no
apparent point to it all.
There still is no apparent point to it all, but it carries twice as many
people to the Moon's surface as Apollo did on each flight.

Pat