I’ll be on The Space Show tomorrow at 3 PM Eastern (noon Pacific), to discuss Ares, Shuttle, EELVs, alternate architectures, Mike Griffin’s job prospects, etc.
[Monday afternoon update, with a bump]
The podcast is now available.
5 thoughts on “On The Radio”
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Looking forward, and hopefully you and David can do something (again) with Evoloterra in July …
Hi Rand, re Lunar mission architecture – you said there’s no need for “heavy lifters” like Ares V or for that matter Saturn V. If I heard correctly you would favor smaller rockets with separate launches to LEO for propellant, with in-orbit rendezvous, assembly etc. Can you elaborate or point to another blog entry?
– Is your architecture more economical because smaller launches are cheaper, say involving ATVs for propellant and cargo transfer? Or are they cheaper because (unlike heavy lifters) they can be managed by the private sector? – or are they inherently cheaper since they already exist (Atlas, Delta)? Do the launchers need to be reusable in your scenario, or is that just a “preferred”?
Regards, Daniel
All of the above.
The key point is to develop a competitive market for the vast amount of cargo, which is propellant, and see who can deliver it for the least amount of money (and avoid the need for developing a heavy lifter that will rarely be flown). As for specific architectures, Jon Goff gives an example.
Thanks for the link – lots of detail there. Comment 13 (by Jon) seems to be a bit of a caveat though. – Nonetheless the existing Atlas infrastructure & heritage gives real oomph to this approach.
BTW, just for comparison, the SpaceX approach (http://www.spacex.com/FalconLunarCapabilityGuide.pdf) is different, they claim “When launched from Cape Canaveral, Falcon 9 is capable of inserting roughly 1925 kg (4240lbm) into TLI based upon a 48‐hour direct transfer”. I guess that means they would need two launches minimum (the other for the lunar lander), but this is still fewer than Jon’s approach. Furthermore, F9 is supposed to be fully reusable – so it seems economical.
Of course, all that from their (as yet unproven) POV, so the multiple launches approach is more immediately practical. Also as you mention it does open the market to other competition from smaller players.
Regards, Daniel
Thanks for the link to the download of the show!