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NASA Tests All-Composite Prototype Crew Module
coondoggie writes "With an eye toward building safer, lighter and tougher spacecraft, NASA said today its prototype space crew module made up of composite materials handled tests simulating structural stresses of launch and atmospheric reentry. The idea behind NASA's Composite Crew Module project is to test new structural materials for possible future NASA spacecraft. According to NASA, composite materials are being looked at because they are stiff and lightweight and can be formed into complex shapes that may be more structurally efficient. In space travel, where every additional pound of weight drives costs higher, any weight savings provides increased payload capacity and potentially reduces mission expense."
What also boggles me is they threw away a lot of the stuff - including data they got from the lunar missions.
A lot of the expertise has been lost. People have retired, the factories that built the parts (e.g. those huge Saturn V engines) may no longer exist.
Once you lose the expertise and infrastructure, it costs a lot to rebuild it.
Imagine if we were all nuked into the stone age and only crawled out of the bunkers 5-10 years later. Getting back to the state of fabricating 3GHz x86 chips would take a long time and lots of investment.