BogoMIPS - 4/1/2006 10:17 PMIf we wait for each sucessive presidential administration to come up with a different vision, we'll just see more of the same, where each system architecture gets cancelled for the next "flavor of the month".
I agree that a reliable, reusable TSTO system, with maintenance costs an order of magnitude cheaper than the partially/mostly-reusable systems available now would be great, and probably better than CEV/CLV and the SDHLV. These certainly aren't (or at least I *hope* they aren't) the last vehicles we design.
I hope we can do both! Get a reliable, safer system, based on our current technology, that builds on tested methods. Then, continue looking towards the future, with more revolutionary designs.
vt_hokie - 4/1/2006 9:34 PMI just hope that CEV gets cancelled, and maybe the next presidential administration will support advancement beyond STS, rather than a return to Apollo capsules.
VentureStar's SSTO concept was a bad idea from day one, and it became an even worse idea when the commercial launch market imploded That aspect of the project never should have been approved, and it should have been canceled a lot sooner.The X-33 should have been continued however with the understanding that it was an X-plane and nothing more. A test bed for the new TPS system and the Aerospike engine.
realtime - 5/1/2006 12:37 AMSTS is on the way out. Any further delay in developing a replacement leaves us with no access to space. Your solution would leave us grounded, maybe forever. A Pyrrhic victory for you alone.
vt_hokie - 5/1/2006 12:59 AMIf we're going to resign ourselves to primitive expendable ballistic reentry capsules as the immediate future of spaceflight, we might as well just pay the Russians to keep flying our astronauts on their antiquated Soyuz while we develop a new spaceplane, instead of wasting billions on our own Apollo command module revival.
Chris Bergin - 4/1/2006 4:16 PMhttp://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4180 - long!
British NASA - 5/1/2006 6:48 AMUnmanned, so this was another example of something that could launch and land on its own. NASA has to ability, yet still won't put it into the Shuttles? That makes me sigh.
braddock - 5/1/2006 3:39 PM Is there some advantage that tiles have that I don't realize? Weight? Tiles always seemed kind of an exotic solution.
braddock - 5/1/2006 8:39 AMDoes anyone know anything more about that metalic thermal protection system? It looked like nothing more than a titanium plate with an insulation pad on the back. Is that all that is required for a reusable TPS?Is there some advantage that tiles have that I don't realize? Weight? Tiles always seemed kind of an exotic solution.