FWD: Lockheed Martin Lunar Landers concepts revealed

On 23 Sep 2006 06:33:21 -0700, wrote:

I just realised that concept 1 is probably less than 5 - 5.5 m in
diameter and less than 20m long. That means it could be launched in an
EELV or a Falcon 9.

That could mean NASA still has a moon program if they realise
soon that Ares doesn't work.

The only question is how many of our taxpayer dollars are they going
to blow through before they're finally forced to acknowledge the real
world. Is there anyone at NASA with the balls to go to Congress and
say "we screwed up, but we have a plan to fix it"? I doubt it.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote:
On 23 Sep 2006 06:33:21 -0700, wrote:

I just realised that concept 1 is probably less than 5 - 5.5 m in
diameter and less than 20m long. That means it could be launched in an
EELV or a Falcon 9.

That could mean NASA still has a moon program if they realise
soon that Ares doesn't work.

The only question is how many of our taxpayer dollars are they going
to blow through before they're finally forced to acknowledge the real
world. Is there anyone at NASA with the balls to go to Congress and
say "we screwed up, but we have a plan to fix it"? I doubt it.

The more I think about it the more I see the Ares 1 / 5 approach is
extremely risky (as well as being extremely expensive). If a lunar base
is up and running, and either the Ares 1 or 5 get grounded, the base
would need to be abandoned. Its worse than all eggs in one basket.

But the CEV and the concept 1 lunar lander could be launched on
commerical vehicles. NASA could save itself 10s of billions in costs,
and reduce the program risk.