Alan Erskine wrote:
"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
I hope that it's the end of Constellation (assuming that means Ares
and the current plan) but it's foolish to infer that from an inaugural
address. Particularly in this case...

I was more referring to the bit about budget responsibility than science. I
can't, for the life of me, work out why going back to the Moon will be
_more_ expensive than Apollo....[/quote]

Because the goals of Constellation are more ambitious than Apollo.

That's what NASA would have us believe; and
it's mainly due to using Ares 1 and V (as well as a lander that is grossly
over-sized for what it does - Altair)

If you want to use the same basic lander architecture for a sortie
mission (4 men * 2 weeks vs 2 men * days for Apollo), and a base-build
mission, it's going to be a big lander.