Meet the future of space exploration. NASA's new pathfinder shuttle is changing space travel one nuclear engine at a time.Watch #ForAllMankind on the @AppleTV app with an Apple TV+ subscription.
Why are they dragging landing gear, wings and other errata all the way out to luna? I don't see how the space shuttle would land on the moon without some kind of landing/ascent stage to further complicate things. In a show that is supposed to stick pretty close to reality (even if an alternate reality) this annoys me. Apart from that I've enjoyed season 2 so far.
With a basic NERVA having a specific impulse of about 800 seconds, a pulsed version would have instead 4,460 to 13,880 seconds!
Randomly saw this pic from the series.http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-021921e-lg.jpgIs it my imagination, or does the payload in the shuttle docked with Skylab look like its intended to be an expanded version of the shuttle EDO kit?
Was there ever any nuclear-powered Shuttle-like concept on any drawing board at any point? It doesn't seem likely to reflect post-Apollo thinking, since winged vehicles wouldn't be seen as suitable for BEO missions.
Maybe that's the explanation... that Shuttle that superfically looks like the one we know, maybe it has some kind of NERVA-SSME hybrid? with such a high specific impulse, only a small tank of LH2 in the "payload bay" can push it toward the Moon...
FAM does not use those post-Apollo infrastructure concepts. Instead, it is based upon using shuttles refueled in LEO to perform that function. They go to the Moon and rendezvous with a reusable Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) that carries people and some cargo to and from the Moon. Major cargo is delivered by Sea Dragon flights.
I'm not sure which kind of Shuttle they showed Garrett Reisman on. Was it the older Shuttle or this newer Pathfinder type?Because the shots they used suggested that a traditional Space Shuttle had been sent into a parking orbit around the Moon, to pick up astronaut Molly Cobb.And yet we know that in real life, the US Space Shuttle is not radiation-shielded for BEO travel, and would not be able to hit Earth's atmosphere at lunar return velocity.
Quote from: sanman on 03/06/2021 11:45 pmWas there ever any nuclear-powered Shuttle-like concept on any drawing board at any point? It doesn't seem likely to reflect post-Apollo thinking, since winged vehicles wouldn't be seen as suitable for BEO missions.No. You don't want to bring a hot reactor back to Earth.Post-Apollo plans considered an Earth-Moon infrastructure that could have included a nuclear-powered tug.FAM does not use those post-Apollo infrastructure concepts. Instead, it is based upon using shuttles refueled in LEO to perform that function. They go to the Moon and rendezvous with a reusable Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) that carries people and some cargo to and from the Moon. Major cargo is delivered by Sea Dragon flights.
