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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
See:
"http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040227-105754-2873r" Analysis: NASA studies new booster By Frank Sietzen United Press International Published 2/27/2004 1:53 PM "WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- NASA has begun studies to determine if it will need a new class of powerful super rockets to boost the new moon and Mars spaceships President Bush has proposed as part of a new U.S. space policy." The story says that a decision is expected by the end of 2004 on the sizing of vehicles. It says that some version of EOR is likely for Project Constellation, with manned capsules carried by EELV rockets, but cargo lofted by something an order of magnitude more powerful. Shuttle derived vehicles are being studied closely. One concept would convert orbiters into unmanned cargo ships (able to carry 80,000 lbs to LEO). Some designs would add a segment to the SRBs to increase payload mass. Other designs would use cargo pods in place of orbiters - some would use EELV engines in place of SSMEs to boost payload to 200,000 pounds or more. "... it would appear that some combination of Delta, Atlas and Shuttle-evolved heavy cargo rockets will be the rocketships that power Bush's moon and Mars dreams." - Ed Kyle |
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
"ed kyle" wrote in message om... See: "http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040227-105754-2873r" Analysis: NASA studies new booster By Frank Sietzen United Press International Published 2/27/2004 1:53 PM "WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- NASA has begun studies to determine if it will need a new class of powerful super rockets to boost the new moon and Mars spaceships President Bush has proposed as part of a new U.S. space policy." The story says that a decision is expected by the end of 2004 on the sizing of vehicles. It says that some version of EOR is likely for Project Constellation, with manned capsules carried by EELV rockets, but cargo lofted by something an order of magnitude more powerful. Shuttle derived vehicles are being studied closely. One concept would convert orbiters into unmanned cargo ships (able to carry 80,000 lbs to LEO). Some designs would add a segment to the SRBs to increase payload mass. Other designs would use cargo pods in place of orbiters - some would use EELV engines in place of SSMEs to boost payload to 200,000 pounds or more. "... it would appear that some combination of Delta, Atlas and Shuttle-evolved heavy cargo rockets will be the rocketships that power Bush's moon and Mars dreams." Most of these I actually find kind of worrisome. A robotic shuttle could eat massive amounts of money and free up very little for a moon program. Mixing Shuttle tank, solids, RS-68 and either MB-60 or RL-60 could lead to some very powerful rockets. |
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
Most of these I actually find kind of worrisome.
A robotic shuttle could eat massive amounts of money and free up very little for a moon program. Why is that? Its only electronics. The Shuttle is already highly automated, it launches by itself and it could land by itself. Tom |
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
"TKalbfus" wrote in message ... Most of these I actually find kind of worrisome. A robotic shuttle could eat massive amounts of money and free up very little for a moon program. Why is that? Its only electronics. The Shuttle is already highly automated, it launches by itself and it could land by itself. The only thing you get is a little more mass and now need to risk men. You need to check the tiles, the engines, and everything else the shuttle requires. There is no savings in manpower or other equipment. You still need to do basically everything you do for a manned shuttle. So it still costs $3 billion dollars plus. Which means there is no money freed up to go to the Moon. |
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
The only thing you get is a little more mass and now need to risk men.
You need to check the tiles, the engines, and everything else the shuttle requires. There is no savings in manpower or other equipment. You still need to do basically everything you do for a manned shuttle. Except there is no human life to consider. the Shuttle would and could easily be flying now. For an unmanned space shuttle, the external tank insulation foam would not be worth fixing, we would simple accept the risk of the Shuttle burning up in the atmosphere from time to time. That's the beauty of an unmanned craft. Tom |
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
Brian Thorn wrote in message . ..
On 27 Feb 2004 18:07:03 -0800, (ed kyle) wrote: See: "http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040227-105754-2873r" Analysis: NASA studies new booster By Frank Sietzen It says that some version of EOR is likely for Project Constellation, with manned capsules carried by EELV rockets, but cargo lofted by something an order of magnitude more powerful. Um, wouldn't that mean a booster capable of something like 500,000 lbs. to LEO? Yikes. Only if CEV weighs 50,000 pounds. It should weigh much less than that. - Ed Kyle |
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NASA studies new booster (UPI)
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