Back to the future...

[jay]

I'm dubious of the latest plan... abandoning the shuttle in a couple of years, reverting to a capsule architecture to go back to the Moon by 2013. But at least they have the rationale for the Moon (correctly, IMO) being to prepare to go to Mars by 2020. Otherwise, the Moon itself is close enough that we can easily explore it with telerobotics at much lower cost. Mars, on the other hand, needs humans there because of the transmission lags to Earth.

Now, for the details... what I've heard of the plan thus far sounds like it was written by the JSC old-guard.

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I've seen none of these details. Do they plan to use the STS (SRBs, SSMEs, tank) in a heavy lift version for space stations and lunar shots? Getting large amounts of mass into LEO will very much be needed, and the shuttle as is carries too much dead weight at the moment.

Of course, as its been observed elsewhere, this is all being proposed to win votes, and would still have to get through congress. With the deficit balooning already, I can't see it happening unless there are significant cuts elsewhere in the budget (military, homeland security?) or tax rises. Neither of those seem to be likely Bush policies, so this is probably all just so much hot air, like Daddy's Mars project.

[rosefox]

While you're being opinionated about such things *) any commentary on this?