kraisee - 15/4/2007 4:17 PMThere's no way to maintain the Shuttle for flights without keeping the entire $2.5bn/year standing army of employees and facilities unchanged - whether you fly or not. Removing this amount (more than a quarter of the entire budget) of cash from the Constellation funding every year would seriously screw up the schedule.You couldn't even do it if you were using something much 'closer', like DIRECT.Its Shuttle or it's a Lunar>Mars program. We can't afford both. Choose.Ross.
bad_astra - 16/4/2007 9:11 AMAt some point we're going to miss a lot of the functions the shuttle could do. Having a shuttle might also be handy for the construction of a Mars Transfer vehicle.
Christine - 16/4/2007 11:09 AMI don't really understand why it was overlooked in the shuttle. They added 50 tonnes of useless winglets, a large middeck that on most flights seemingly only serves as ballast, and several kitchen sinks. Why didn't they think that with all this other crap, having a few extra kilowatts of solar panels wouldn't be important?
Jim - 16/4/2007 10:15 AMDo you have a problem with every post? Add something constructive for once
Christine - 16/4/2007 11:37 AMI'm not sure where to go with that one Jim. I was merely observing that if you're going to drag 110tons to orbit, you might add a couple hundred kilograms of solar panels to supplement your onboard fuel cells.
Christine - 16/4/2007 10:09 AMI don't really understand why it was overlooked in the shuttle. They added 50 tonnes of useless winglets, a large middeck that on most flights seemingly only serves as ballast, and several kitchen sinks. Why didn't they think that with all this other crap, having a few extra kilowatts of solar panels wouldn't be important?
sandrot - 13/4/2007 4:36 PMI can't even think to Energia LOC and LOM numbers with the 4 liquid strap on...
Christine - 16/4/2007 8:37 AMQuoteJim - 16/4/2007 10:15 AMDo you have a problem with every post? Add something constructive for onceI'm not sure where to go with that one Jim. I was merely observing that if you're going to drag 110tons to orbit, you might add a couple hundred kilograms of solar panels to supplement your onboard fuel cells. Anywho, I sincerely apologise for trespassing in the forum Jim. I should have taken more time to read the forum FAQ, which details that it is exclusively reserved as your personal sounding board. I'll take my irreverent musings somewhere else.