"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone...

Derek Lyons wrote:
And here Jeff trots out his favorite hobby horse again. The paint is
a bit worn, but enough of the outline can still be seen to allow one
to recreate the fantasy.

Remember years back the guy who was costantly arguing here in favor of his
superconducting electrical storage cell that was going to change
everything, and people kept trying to explain to him that no more energy
was going to come out of it than you put into it?
This is the space equivalent of that concept. :-)

LEO refueling depots don't require unobtainium to produce. In fact, near
term tests could be done using modified EELV upper stages. Today's EELV
upper stages have some pretty amazing cryogenic storage capabilities,
especially when compared to what NASA is trying to baseline for Ares V.
NASA just isn't on top of the current state of the art in upper stage
cryogenics. :-(

The part NASA needs to work on are the technologies needed to move cryogenic
propellant from one tank to another, make reliable (leak free) cryogenic
connections between two spacecraft, automated rendezvous and docking (this
one is just about off the shelf already), and etc.


Russia has been transferring non-cryogenic propellant from one spacecraft to
another since what, the 1970's? Can't we please update this in the 2010's
to include cryogenic propellants?

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon