Re: DIRECT launcher article in AIAA Houston Horizons


"Jim Kingdon" <kingdon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:p4wvebjtjj8.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.aiaa-houston.org/horizons

Thanks for posting this link. The articles there look pretty
interesting.

Indeed. I especially liked the article about the training that Virgin
Galactic held for travel agents. I hadn't heard about that event
before.

The article on the Direct (Jupiter) launch vehicle (family) was interesting
as well. I still don't support any new NASA developed launch vehicle, but
the Direct launch vehicle approach does seem to have a few advantages. It
seems to minimize initial launch vehicle development costs and schedule by
keeping the four segment SRB's and having the liquid fueled first stage be
the same diameter as the existing ET. Because it has more in common with
the STS stack it maximizes reuse of shuttle facilities. And finally, it
would give NASA a launch vehicle family with fewer variations (hardware and
work-flow)between them than Ares I + Ares V.

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)


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: My Lunar Launch Plan
    ... It's not surprising that ... shuttle's standing army by creating a "shuttle derived" launch vehicle and ... little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Yet more Russian spacecraft for NASA?
    ... The launch vehicle classification makes sense. ... Gemini on top is far less innovative than the highly modified S-IV-B with ... little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: vehicles
    ... Admittedly thety could use something else down the line, but it still seems odd when, as you say, they are designing a very strange manned launch vehicle when many existing ones could, presumably be made man friendly at a lesser cost. ... Ares I is there to hide some of the development costs for Ares V, which would be the largest launch vehicle ever built. ... They will not be released because they contain proprietary cost data that is exempt from FOIA. ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Commercial Ares I?!
    ... back when Ares 1 was being referred to as "The Stick", everyone on the space newsgroups was complaining about NASA developing a new launch vehicle when Orion could be launched on a Delta IV Heavy, or a Atlas V with strap-on SRBs, and developing a whole new launch vehicle for it seemed both expensive and wasteful of NASA resources. ... "The Abyss" ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: vehicles
    ... I still think the heavy lift version would use ... the legacy Shuttle stuff, but why keep on with it for manned use. ... Ares I is there to hide some of the development costs for Ares V, ... would be the largest launch vehicle ever built. ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)