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To those who feel that human exploration of the solar system is something they'd like to see near term, if a govt. agency tasked with the job is doing an incomp
by marze 17y ago
To those who feel that human exploration of the solar system is something they'd like to see near term, if a govt. agency tasked with the job is doing an incompetent job of it while spending billions to develop capability that already exists in the private sector (read: Atlas V), I could understand why they might focus on this particular "govt. jobs program".
- jfoutz 17y agoI could be misunderstanding, but it looks to me like an Atlas V HLV has about 1/5 the lift capacity of a Saturn V. I know materials are better now, but I'm not convinced they are 500% better. Furthermore, the air, water, food and crew is a fixed mass. I doubt an atlas could take a person to the moon and back even if the structure and fuel are massless.
- jfoutz 17y agoOh, i am dumb. yeah, I guess an atlas would be fine. It would take a lot more trips to get the vehicle built but the reuse of existing tech is probably far cheaper that building something new. not enough coffee this morning i guess.