Any comments? Anybody have links to other documents of this plan?


Snidely scribbled something like ...

Have we discussed the plan championed by Landau and Strange? I'm
catching up with my print reading, and when I saw their article in the
Dec 2011 Scientific American, I thought it was strange that I didn't

oops, should have used a synonym.

recognize it as an SSP topic.

Their plan involves a capsule ride to a deep-space ion-drive ship,
used in a kind of powered-shuttler scheme, and to support EV tasks
with pods. Test flight would be to an orbit above the lunar south
pole to control a fleet of robotic explorers.

"Focusing on an easier mission could stunt exploration by setting a
dead end for technological capability. Conversely, striving for a
harder mission could perpetually delay any meaningful exploration by
setting targets too far out of reach. Our desgin baseline falls
between these extremes. It is a one-year round-trip that launches in
2034, with 30 days spent exploring asteroid 2008 EV5."
(pg 62)

What's the reaction of SSP to the 3 principles they use: flexibility,
not having to newly invent everything, and to design a program that
can maintain forward momentum even if one component runs into problems
or delays.

/dps