On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:00:45 -0400, in a place far, far away, "Jon S.
Berndt" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such
a way as to indicate that:

"Derek Clarke" wrote in message

While I agree in theory with the ideal of having completely reusable
vehicles, sometimes you just have to accept that throwing bits away is
the most economical course in practice.

Maybe "reusable" is a word that leaves a bad aftertaste. I didn't mean
"reusable" so much as I meant "a vehicle with a purpose to act as a lunar
orbit/surface/orbit taxi continuously". "Operational". This thread was
continued at sci.space.policy. John Schilling posted there on this topic and
I think he makes some good arguments for a single CEV/LSAM vehicle.

I think that "in-space refuelable" is a better descriptor of what is
needed. Of course, that also implies an infrastructure of propellant
depots and the means of keeping them topped off, at various locations
throughout cis-lunar space.