Text 14735, 46 rader
Skriven 2007-05-18 14:38:23 av Josh Hill (1147.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 14719 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (1131.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Are Ares I and V red herrings or the way to the Moon?
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On Fri, 18 May 2007 06:51:24 +0100, Andrew Swallow
<am.swallow@btopenworld.com> wrote:

>NASAs current plan for returning to the Moon is Project Constellation 
>which consists of designing two rockets the Ares_I and Ares_V, a manned 
>capsule Orion, an Earth Departure Stage (EDS) [rocket], Lunar Surface 
>Access Module (LSAM) and plans for a Moon Base.
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Constellation>
>
>The plan calls for the Ares_I launch vehicle to lift the astronauts in 
>the Orion capsule into Earth orbit and for the larger Ares_V to lift 
>everything else.
>
>Two different design of rockets for the same mission appears expensive. 
>  Since design costs are much larger than the small scale manufacturing 
>costs I wonder if just the Ares_V needs designing?  Even if two 
>different rockets are needed could the Ares_I be replaced by SpaceX's 
>Falcon 9 Heavy rocket?
><http://www.spacex.com>
>
>Alternately could NASA come up with its own rocket to launch the lot?

IIRC,  the decision to use the Ares I rather than the Ares V to loft
the astronauts was safety-related. I don't know to what extent that's
justified -- after all, the astronauts went up on the Saturn V -- but
space travel is extremely hazardous under any circumstances, and NASA
is understandably sensitive right now about the possibility of losing
more astronauts.

I asked a NASA engineer once why they didn't use an existing launch
vehicle, and he said that they had given serious consideration to it,
but that it would cost almost as much to man rate an existing vehicle
as to develop a "new" one using existing shuttle components and IIRC a
modification of the engine used in the upper stages of the Saturn V.

-- 
Josh

"The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet
that people have the right to live life as they please,
as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process. . . .
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