gaetanomarano wrote:
On 22 Mag, 00:01, kT wrote:

Why not just put some lightweight capsules on both EELVs, and then give
COTS some money to beat those numbers, that should be pretty damn easy.


if you launch the full (unmanned) lunar convoy with the AresX, the
crew could reach it in the parking orbit with a wide variety of
vehicles: a COTS capsule, a small, lightweight and cheap capsule
launched with an EELV, a Soyuz, a Shenzhou, the Space Shuttle (if
still in service) the Bigelow-LockMart "tourists capsule" or whichever
new orbital vehicle available in th next decade

Ok, you're going for the big Hermann Munster mobile.

First, we don't want to go back to the moon, we want to go to Ceres.

Second, getting to Ceres is going to be occurring in something much
larger than a CEV, so we need to be able to construct large spacecraft
out of smaller ones, because no Hermann Munster from hell is going to be
able to launch the kind of vehicles we want to be flying to Ceres, they
are just too freakin large - big flying cities are really more like it.

Look at how Mount Everest is climbed. Sorry to burst your bubble but we
can do it all with liquids. Solid rocket boosters are so 20th century.

--
Get A Free Orbiter Space Flight Simulator :
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html