More New Details on NASA's CEV Launcher Studies

TheEqualizer writes "Continuing on the NYT story on NASA's current CEV launcher plans, spaceref has an even more extensive look with detailed assessments of the available options. By all accounts, it looks like NASA is picking up where it left off with Apollo but also combining it with established Shuttle technology -- the capsule concept of the 1960s atop the shuttle boosters of the 1970s being the winning combination under the current budgetary limitations. However, is this coupling of old technology and designs really the best we can do?"

Comments

Re:If it ain't broke...

[cluckshot]

There were proposals near the end of the Apollo program for BDB (Big Dumb Booster) to kick the stuff up into space for the people to work with who arrived seperately in their own capsule. Well the proposal got killed because it was too cheap and efficient. It quit hiring engineers and just got work done.

Being from the Redstone Arsenal Area where Marshall Space Flight Center is and having had my father help put men on the moon, I have delt and rubbed elbows with these guys for a long time. NASA was off on some regal royal hunt rather than doing the job right. The best evidence is B. Rattan and his X Prize effort. All he did was take the proved existing 1950's era tech and build it up with any modern available stuff. It works!

I have been to events where NASA leadership was present and private speakers were trying to get the space program advanced. I told them to listen because I learned the proposals and I knew they would work. I have been to events where the men were "begging for new ideas." They didn't want any because I gave them some.

I have seen launched from Redstone Airfield over 70,000 pounds to an altitude of over 90,000 feet using NO Fuel what so ever. I watched it! I told them to use the balloon launch like that to get the material above the atmosphere and then rockets above. They said it was "Impossible." The problem is that these guys don't have the calm casual thinking that if I take two days to get to orbit it beats taking 10 years development and a 10 minute launch. They are also attached to launch at a specific location and need yanked out of florida!

Recovery is another thing that these men are stinkers on. The Shuttle heat shield system is impossibly complex and completely unnecessary. Burt Rattan has proved that! The Russians proved it too! Russians recovered using Oak soaked in salt water heat shields for a long time! It worked! Even a retrofit disposable heat shield using (GASP!) Asbestos would work just fine! The current heat shield tiles are nothing but a second rate asbestos anyway. (Check the chemistry if you doubt this)

Being a child of the space race I know what these IDIOTS who get too much pay and who are to arrogant act like. I know their history very well. They need fired. But like very bureaucracy if you order mass firings of these idiots, only the working shlepps down at the bottom will get shed, not the morons at the top.