Moonshot, CEV Modifications

DarkNemesis618 writes "In the latest round of budget cuts, NASA introduced plans to modify the CEV for the planned Moon landing in 2018. The original plan called for an engine used on the space shuttle to be modified for the CEV. The new plan is to use an updated J-2 engine. The J-2 engine was first used on the Saturn V rocket which took the Apollo astronauts to the moon in the late 60's early 70's. It is not expected to save any money in the near-term, but in the far term, it should be a cost saver since the technology already exists and is proven. In the 10 Apollo launches aboard the Saturn V rocket, there were no problems with the launch vehicle."

Comments

Not really a surprise

[AKAImBatman]

Note that this isn't really a surprise to those who have been following the CEV development. The original plan called for a modification to the SSMEs for multiple restarts as the J-2 (the upper stage engine for the Saturn V) is no longer in production. However, there was a lot of discussion inside NASA that restarting production on the less powerful J-2 would be cheaper, faster, and easier than trying to modify the more powerful (but far more complex) SSME to do the job.

To give quick rundown on which engines are which:

SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engines) - LHOx Fuel - 1.8 MN
SRB (Solid Rocket Booster) - Solid Fuel - 14.7 MN
J-2 (2nd and 3rd stage Saturn V) - LHOx - 890 kN
F-1 (1st stage Saturn V) - Kerosine - 6.7 MN

The SSME and J-2 are directly comparable, and the SRB and F-1 are directly comparable.

Re:2018?

[AKAImBatman]

I'm a bit confused as to how it takes us longer to get to the moon now than it did in the 60s.

1. Money. If we spent as much today as we did on the Apollo program, we'd be able to get a craft ready in a very short period of time. (Note that while NASA receives more than enough money, most of it goes toward the Space Shuttle's maintenece and other projects.)

2. Technology. The industry that produced the Saturn V doesn't exist anymore, so it is not really possible to produce it again. We can produce a new rocket like the Saturn V (or buy off the Energia, take your pick), but that would just give us another moonshot rocket. What we want to build this time is an infrastructure that will keep us on the moon instead of merely sending up a few tons there and back.

If there was an emergency, I imagine we could get to the moon inside two years. Most of the lander equipment can be remanufactured and lifted by the Space Shuttle, and strap-on boosters could be lifted to propell the module. But that's not the point. That's why we're doing this the right way this time. Or to put it in perspective, the Apollo missions started out with 2,900 tons of hardware. They came back with about 6 tons. That means that they expended 2,300 tons of hardware to get 3 people to the moon and back. That's a hell of a lot of waste! :-)