Clean Sheet Design...

I know that Griffin/NASA are going with an Inline SDV and a seperate
'Stick' launcher for the CEV. But, what would be the optimal Clean
Sheet Design.
The Goal is to return to the Moon and go to Mars and establish base(s)
as quickly as possible:
Could a scalable booster be designed to serve both functions?
Or would you require seperate booster for each?
Or would EOR/Assembly with a Saturn V class booster be a viable option
for a Mars Mission?
In either case would we be able to use exsisting engines or would we
have to design new ones?

Launch rates:
With Mars, you pretty much stuck with one every 26 months
The Moon 4-12 per year(Is that possible?) With 6 being the average.

What are the bases for? Valid question:
Mars - Purely scientific, research, search for life, geology(Areology?)
Moon - there are several reasons for going back to the
Moon(Geology,Radio & Optical Astronomy, insitu resource
extraction/mining), one base can't satisfy all. Mining operations
could interfere with the optics of your telescopes. So you might have
to have several bases or a base with several human tended stations that
could operate automously for several months between visits.
What would be the min mass landed necessary to be able to start any of
the activities right away?


The big question is how much would this cost and how long would it take
to develop it?
(Sadly, most likely more than Congress is willing to pay)

Just my $0.02

Space Cadet

derwetzelsDASHspacecadetATyahooDOTcom


Moon Society - St. Louis Chapter

http://www.moonsociety.org/chapters/stlouis/

The Moon Society is a non-profit educational and
scientific foundation formed to further scientific
study and development of the moon.