November 20, 2005

wrote:
wrote:
blart wrote:
The really nice thing about tank farms in space is that people can live in
the tanks, safely!

the three pillars are

1) lots of water up there, as cheap as possible - big one shot boosters just
getting to LEO
2) use the boosters/tanks as habitats as well - dual use designs that look
like the enterprise on the INSIDE
and never return anything....

http://webpages.charter.net/tsiolkovsky/rocket.htm

ahh we had over a 100 such tanks and tossed them all away

Shuttles ET

Yes, but it turns out there are somewhat less than suitable, because of
the foam contamination issues, and the fact that they are not designed
for retrofit. There is also the problem that they are now a known
shuttle killer. There is also no sense putting them up there and then
letting atmospheric drag bring them right back down again. What I am
proposing is an entirely new tank manufacturing technology, made
possible only by the elimination of the orbiter and the SRBs, and then
using the residual fuel to migrate them up above the drag zone, using
high Isp solar powered thrusters, until they are ready to be used. I
think most of US agree here that ESAS is a complete joke. I would
actually go along with VSE, if it was tied with a credible SLI leading
to significant launch vehicle and life support advances, but sadly,
that is not what Griffin and Marshall delivered to US. I might even
have supported it, if it used existing ELVs. But what we have here is
sheer folly, something has to give. VSE and ESAS simply have to go, we
have enough problems even with ELVs, ISS and STS, and another 100
billion down the tubes is not going to solve our fundamental space
launch and life support problems. Then there is also this nasty little
hydrocarbon problem too, and the asteroid threat. AFAIK, the moon isn't
expected to crash into the Earth any time soon. What clinched things
for me just recently, was Hayabusa :

http://planetary.org/blog/

I'm thinking about PHP blogging my pro SSTO and anti ESAS views, along
with a good CGI discussion forum, but there is very little interest in
this sort of thing. It's sad really, that I am the only person
advocating it at all anymore. Would anyone be interested in that? I'd
hate to give a party and nobody show up. I might even promise to be
nice. (Sure, uh-huh)

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://webpages.charter.net/cosmic