"Patrick Underwood" wrote in message
om...
Given that we are returning to the Moon and hopefully going on to
Mars, we may eventually need a Saturn V-class booster. If so, it
might make sense to revive the Russian Energia.

Energia-derived hardware is in use today by Lockheed, in the form of
the RD-180 Atlas engine, and by Boeing, as the Zenit Sea Launch
booster. The lox/kerosene engines are robust, efficient and familiar
to American engineers. The RD-0120 cryogenic engine is comparable in
performance to the SSME, but simpler and more rubust.

As far as I know, the Energia launch pad and processing buildings
still exist, as well as some mothballed Energia stack elements. (I
have seen an estimate of $100M for refurbishing the Energia launch
pad.) The documentation and tooling necessary to revive the program
still exist, as they do not for the Saturn V. Many of the engineers
who worked on the program must still be in business.

I wonder who made that estimate. :-)

In terms of the Saturn V, the documentation DOES exist. The tooling does
not. However, much of it would be replaced anyway. I think the biggest
problem would be finding a place to store/build the S-ICs.

Of course if you shut down the Shuttle, then you have the VAB. And can just
back modify LC-39. Everything old is new again.

Of course, I'm not sure HL is the way to go. Especially with NASA wanting
to do it.

Patrick