You are thinking correctly. Peacekeeper (in this case, Minotaur IV) is 92" (2.24m) in diameter. However, Little Joe in the Apollo program was a structural frame with sufficient solid motors internal to achieve the desired acceleration.
Now this is an interesting wrinkle.... SpaceX has now announced plans for a crewed moon missions. (Zond style with free return trajectory)Timeline: after Dragon is certified for ISS, they are hoping for late 2018.http://www.spacex.com/news/2017/02/27/spacex-send-privately-crewed-dragon-spacecraft-beyond-moon-next-yearThis will surely have some reverberations in NASA and their SLS/Orion contractors.
Nothing will stand in the way of the SLS unless you can change Congress.
Quote from: Lars-J on 02/27/2017 08:53 pmNow this is an interesting wrinkle.... SpaceX has now announced plans for a crewed moon missions. (Zond style with free return trajectory)Timeline: after Dragon is certified for ISS, they are hoping for late 2018.http://www.spacex.com/news/2017/02/27/spacex-send-privately-crewed-dragon-spacecraft-beyond-moon-next-yearThis will surely have some reverberations in NASA and their SLS/Orion contractors.Totally legit and guaranteed to happen, no doubt about it, on time or your cheese wheel is free.
And this is different than the EM-1 mission... how?Anyway, my point was not to spark a heated discussion about which is better, merely how this might affect the mission that is the topic of this thread.
A NASA HQ source claimed they were not informed about the announcement ahead of Elon’s comments on Monday, although he believes Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and President Trump’s NASA “Landing Team” was briefed, which in turn – the source claimed – was why Mr. Lightfoot asked NASA to conduct a study into accelerating the schedule towards crewed missions on Orion.
I agree with some of the comments above that SLS/Orion will need to lift their game.Spin it any way you want, but SpaceX doing a flyby first is not a good look for SLS/Orion.The solution is easy, do something more ambitious with SLS/Orion. You have a President who wants ambitious results - work with that. If you can deliver an outcome that appeals to him, you might even get more funding;)
President doesn't control the funding, Congress does.
IMHO: The USA has a president who probably knew of this announcement by SpaceX (since he talked at least once with Mr. Musk), and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he created this situation to challenge NASA
: specifically with a mission, and see what they can do after all these years and Billions of dollars.
He would probably let the general public decide (since it's their money).
But nothing brings out the best of individuals & organizations like a challenge. If it can't be the Russians (Space Race), then let it be SpaceX.
The end result might be a whole range of possibilities, but one thing is certain: the intention is to move beyond LEO for America.
An early mission for the SLS could be to put a Deep Space Habitat (DSH) spacestation in orbit around the Moon. With station keeping, multiple docking ports and a hanger for the reusable lunar lander such a spacestation will be too massive for a single Falcon Heavy launch.
The article says:"A NASA HQ source claimed they were not informed about the announcement ahead of Elon’s comments on Monday, although he believes Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and President Trump’s NASA “Landing Team” was briefed, which in turn – the source claimed – was why Mr. Lightfoot asked NASA to conduct a study into accelerating the schedule towards crewed missions on Orion."So this may not have reached Trump directly, but Trump's people were given a heads up.