Has there been any info on what would be use for the lunar landing portion?Altair back from the dead?
I suspect any lander is going to be halfway between the Apollo LM and the size of Altair. And if NASA can't get the funding; perhaps an ESA/JAXA consortium could be asked to build it. But then; they have to get funding appropriations approved, too! The other option is to ask Commercial Space - including the big guys Boeing/LockMart/Northrop-Grumman - to compete for the contract. I'd love to see Elon's proposal, assuming he was even interested.
Why would NASA want to co-manifest Orion on the PPE deployment mission? The PPE module could be much heavier if Orion wasn't tagging along.
Quote from: Todd Martin on 12/04/2017 10:15 pmWhy would NASA want to co-manifest Orion on the PPE deployment mission? The PPE module could be much heavier if Orion wasn't tagging along.You got that backwards. On Orion missions after EM-1, there will be leftover payload capacity. It's almost a free flight for the DSG modules. It also gives Orion after EM-2 somewhere to go.
While DRHO provides a bridge between Earth-Moon system Lagrange points EML1 and EML2, does anybody know what are Delta-V and TOF for flights from DRHO to EML1 and from DRHO to EML2?
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle
Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mentionQuoteAchieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle
Quote from: hektor on 01/25/2018 08:03 amSome leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mentionQuoteAchieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicleWhile past performance is no guarantee of future results, does anyone really think NASA can build and launch this in 4 years?
Quote from: hektor on 01/25/2018 08:03 amSome leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mentionQuoteAchieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicleI thought this PPE was to be co-manifested on EM-2.