Re: Manned Venus Flyby


"Henry Spencer" <henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:JE59z6.FI2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <1d1d7$45e48623$927a2cda$26334@xxxxxxxx>,
Jeff Findley <jeff.findley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Looks similar to a Skylab Wet Workshop to me, but minus the ASTP and a few
other bits.

(You presumably mean the ATM...)

You're right, as usual. ;-)

There were a bunch of ideas for wet workshops at the time, many of them
based on the idea -- which proved a bit over-optimistic in the end -- that
you could build a docking/airlock module into the top of an S-IVB without
penalizing its performance much.

For example, Douglas came up with the notion that a somewhat-improved
S-IVB could put itself into lunar orbit, with substantial cargo. So it
carries the docking/airlock module, two spare LM descent stages, and tanks
for refilling an LM ascent stage... and a manned Apollo using it as a base
gets to make three landings instead of one, plus bigger orbital living
quarters and a chunk of orbital-science payload. (Or, still better, add
some further upgrades to the S-IVB and it can land itself plus 12t of
cargo on the Moon.)

Orbital lunar operations base? Interesting idea. You get three landings
for the price of two Saturn V launches.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)


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