Well, at least one is in the hanger awaiting paint, final check out, and launch :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
see http://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=44788
kraisee - 13/4/2008 5:00 PMNot solely because I'm a proponent of DIRECT, but mostly because I know what's going on behind closed doors, I voted yes.Based on that, I am convinced that DIRECT has about twice the chance of being funded than Ares-V has.Ross.
kraisee - 13/4/2008 5:33 PMBy the time Ares-I is ready (IOC 2015), the upgraded Delta-IV Heavy will already have been flying for three years, with greater performance than Ares-I will have.Ross.
kraisee - 13/4/2008 4:00 PMBased on that, I am convinced that DIRECT has about twice the chance of being funded than Ares-V has.Ross.
marsavian - 13/4/2008 6:41 PMQuotekraisee - 13/4/2008 5:33 PMBy the time Ares-I is ready (IOC 2015), the upgraded Delta-IV Heavy will already have been flying for three years, with greater performance than Ares-I will have.Ross.There's really no excuse for NASA to build a LV that the commercial sector can beat already, wasteful in the extreme. Sorry to say this but this Emperor really has no clothes either and more and more are coming to realise this. The Saturn I/V idea was good for its day when there were no alternatives but we can do better now with what's available.
kraisee - 14/4/2008 3:51 PMOf course we now have a certain "have to retire to spend more time with my family" Scott Doc Horowitz lining himself up to become administrator after Griffin.
kraisee - 13/4/2008 8:26 PMYeah, there are easy ways to go down the DIRECT path and still miss the sweet spot.It all depends on the philosophy underlying the decision-making process. Starting with Jupiter-120 and trying to re-develop it into J-232 is the wrong way to o it. Design J-232 first and then fly that in J-120 configuration is the correct way and saves billions.Ross.
rsp1202 - 14/4/2008 7:24 PMQuotekraisee - 14/4/2008 3:51 PMOf course we now have a certain "have to retire to spend more time with my family" Scott Doc Horowitz lining himself up to become administrator after Griffin.I raised this specter on L2 over a month ago, but only as a joke. I should have realized it as a sign of the apocalypse.
tnphysics - 14/4/2008 11:08 PMActually, even then their are pitfalls, e.g. only putting the container for the avionics on the upper stage, leaving the J-120 without guidance.
kraisee - 14/4/2008 6:55 PMThose bigger 5-core or even 7-core Delta-IV's aren't safe enough because they are too complicated. There's too much on them to go wrong. I've heard assessments saying 1 in 10 losses for some of them.Ross.
kraisee - 20/4/2008 9:18 PMI would expect the whole program to be shut down if that flight goes wrong in any spectacular fashion.The biggest danger to DIRECT *not* being adopted now, IMHO, is for something else to come along and derail the whole exploration effort - reducing all the efforts to just Orion on Delta-IV Heavy flying nowhere other than ISS, with all Moon/Mars/Beyond discontinued.Ross.
Lee Jay - 20/4/2008 11:52 PMWhen is all this going to happen, Ross? I gather that sometime this summer or fall, the ability to construct new 8.4 meter tanks at MAF is going to be lost, and it will therefore become much harder to modify that line into supporting the DIRECT architecture.