Alex Terrell wrote:

It would be nice to put a space station into a Highly elliptical Earth
orbit. Then a CEV could launch form Earth and dock with the station at
perigee. Its apogee would pass near the moon. A lunar tug (fueled on
the surface of the moon) would rendezvous, bringing a returning CEV and
leaving with the CEV.

This way 8 people cold be put into the CEV for a short flight of a few
hours.

The orbital period of this "cycler" station could be lunar period / 3.
Once per month it would enable a crew of 8 to transfer to the moon. The
other 2 missions could be used for tourists.



This leaves the problem with the station passing through the inner and
outer Van Allen belts on each orbit- unless the intention is to orbit it
at such a altitude that its perigee is above them.

Pat