Ares V Rocket Bigger and Stronger For Moon Mission

wooferhound writes "In a move to make the heavy-lift vehicle more robust (predicting an increased launch thrust requirement) to send four astronauts, a lunar lander plus supplies, NASA has announced the Ares V rocket will be beefed up to cater for our future needs to get man back to the Moon. This huge vehicle is now designed to carry payloads of over 156,600 lb (71,000 kg), some 15,600 lb (or 10%) more than the original concept. Ares V was originally designed to be approximately the same length as the original Saturn V lunar rocket (361 feet or 110 metres long), but to accommodate an extra booster engine and extra payload volume, Ares V will be 381 feet (116 metres) long. This upgrade will be capable of sending far more instrumentation into space, an extra 15,600 lb (7,000 kg, or the equivalent mass of a male African elephant)."

Comments

Re:Bigger and stronger?

[MMC Monster]

Exactly how do you expect anyone to get the mercury out of the tuna?

While it is possible, what you will be left with would not have the consistency of tuna anymore.

(BTW, congrats on the +5 Insightful, troll.)

Saturn V

[p51d007]

How said that they are WASTING all this money to build something that probably will blow up, when they already have (had) the best rocket design out there. The Saturn V was the ONLY rocket launched that had a 100% record. All they would have to do is build it with modern materials, modern electronics and they would be good to go. Oh wait...engineers didn't think of that, so we can't use that idea can we?