Re: Shuttle flying till at least 2015

Meanwhile, here in the real world, those of us who have actually
studied the Shuttle know full well that the Shuttle and some form of a
Station have been welded at the hip since Day One.


Of course they have. You have a tool and you build structures based on
what that tool is capable of.

Russia didn't have a functioning shuttle or manipulator arm, so their
modules are far more primitive and their capabilites to build space
structures far more limited. They do not have the ability to have CBM
size hatches (those hatches as well as the MPLM were one of the big
things that were learned from the experience on MIR, and those are the
very things that NASA will lose when it abandons the shuttle because it
will revert to the small russian sized hatches on the PMA modules.

Compare the size of the russian modules with that of the USA modules.
And look at the intricate parts that the shuttle was able to fly up
there, including the truss, the station robotic arm as well as the solar
panels and the truss "railway" system.

It would be possible to emulate this by having some rocket with the PMA
docking hardware at the front, and a cavernous cyclinder that would
emulate the shuttle's cargo bay. The rocket would hard dock on a PMA,
and then the station arm would pick up the cargo from the rocket. This
would allow one to send odd shaped ojects to the station.

But such a system would make it harder to start a new station from
scratch. (since until that new structure has an arm, that rocket would
be useless).

So, you would end up having some modules like the russian ones,
outfitted with their own guidance and rockets (each being different),
and some outfitted with cavernous hull that would carry the cargo. SO
you end up with different orbital ships instead of just the shuttle.


.

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