Separate Cargo and Personnel Missions for NASA?

l8f57 writes "Hal Gerham (from the NASA CAIB report) is calling for cargo and people to be separated into different missions. He also goes on about how a re-usable spacecraft may not be the most cost efficient vehicle."

Comments

Re:Is This Wise?

[stratjakt]

I believe this is about minimizing cost and lead times, not risk reduction.

I think the idea is that each type of ship would have different requirements, so you could design each to meet the requirements of its cargo, be it human or stuff.

Ie; a cargo shuttle full of tiny screws to be sorted in space doesnt need fancy atmospheric systems and oxygen recirculators and a seven million dollar toilet, etc.

The Russians did this, all through Mir. They had the Soyuz (sp?) rockets for people, and another kind to send supplies up. Or something like that.

ENTER the space elevator

[Chuck Bucket]

This makes sense, and I'd love to see something like the space elevator that Arthur C. Clarke's brought up in Fountains of Paradise happen. This way, cargo could be brought up, followed by crew if the cargo run was successful.

An article written about the idea, this year:

Space Elevators Maybe Closer To Reality Than Imagined

Much more info here:

The Space Elevator Reference

CB

Should we scrap the shuttle now?

[adeyadey]

Why continue to run the shuttle? Why not just use the money for fast development of new vehicles? Cheaper to buy Soyuz/Progress rockets from the Russians for now..

Now isnt that ironic - The US would end up having to buy what is essentially much the same rocket that Uri Gagarin used in 1961.. :-)