Since The Ares line isn't a DIRECT design, i hardly believe it could be the cheaper alternative. The superior performance of the Ares V could well have been the main selling-point. For me, it makes sense to scrap and re-investigate your options when the budget skyrockets while still at the drawing board and you have alternatives lying around that are mostly based on already available hardware and technology.
That said, i'd would have loved to have seen the Ares V ship settlements to the shackleton crater. A shame that so much money gets spent on for example fruitless 40bn dollar military projects
Hopefully they're not looking into redoing the same thing, but rather find cheaper, perhaps more practical solutions like the Jupiter family or the HLV.
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Since The Ares line isn't a DIRECT design, i hardly believe it could be the cheaper alternative. The superior performance of the Ares V could well have been the main selling-point. For me, it makes sense to scrap and re-investigate your options when the budget skyrockets while still at the drawing board and you have alternatives lying around that are mostly based on already available hardware and technology. That said, i'd would have loved to have seen the Ares V ship settlements to the shackleton crater. A shame that so much money gets spent on for example fruitless 40bn dollar military projects
Hopefully they're not looking into redoing the same thing, but rather find cheaper, perhaps more practical solutions like the Jupiter family or the HLV.