Re: Ares alternatives? "NASA renegades"

"Jeff Findley" <jeff.findley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

But if you want to launch that on current EELV's you will deliver at
most 10 to 15 tons of equipment with one launch (since every single
payload will need power and engines and fuel and more). Add to this the
needed crews to assemble non-trivial stuff which you also have to launch
and you end up with dozens or more launches, not two or three. This is
just not practical.

This is how ISS has been assembled. So ISS isn't practical? Don't you
think lessons have been learned from ISS which would make in orbit assembly
easier for future projects?

It was possible for the ISS, but was it practical? A heavy launcher
could have launched more than the ISS with two launches, saving enormous
amounts of overhead and time. And ISS is not a spacecraft and has no
lander.

You'll have to launch modules that are assembled and
tested on the ground and which don't need any manual work to join them.

Not true. Mir and ISS have shown otherwise.

How many years are you willing to take to assemble your spacecraft?

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
.

Relevant Pages

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