rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski) (01/13/89)
As things currently stand the shuttle is not really suited to get to the moon, mainly fuel + landing problems. However I should think that it would be possible to refuel the shuttle in earth orbit and proceed to lunar orbit carrying a lunar landing module. It is something to consider, since all the rockets tht were use to reach the moon are now museum pieces... A space station\would certainly help since it could hold the fuel (a space [gas] station? :-) Still, I doubt that it would really be economical (after all if it's $1000/lb into Orbit, then how much would a moon trip cost per lb?). Also, I think that the US has some better goals for the present, such as a space station, a lower cost sat. delivery system, and of course there is Mars... In any case, I doubt that you'll see a shuttle to the moon, soon (if ever). / Rick Golembiewski rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu \ \ #include stddisclaimer.h /
anand@amax.npac.syr.edu (Anand Rangachari) (01/13/89)
Noone seems to have considered this possibility yet.
A hundred years from now,the moon has a thriving colony. They have some
extra money left over one year and decide to open an astronautics
museum similar to the Smithsonian. They decide that one of the
exhibits must be the shuttle. So they get the shuttle into orbit and
strap on a bunch of motors and fly it to the moon.
Would someone care to write a story based on this?
R. Anandzweig@m.cs.uiuc.edu (01/13/89)
Does anyone have the ratio of the mass of the shuttle (vehicle only) to that of one of the Apollo landers? It seems like all the mass of wings and cargo bay and heat-resistent tiles and stuff make the shuttle too heavy to be worth sending. Much (most?) of its mass is oriented toward landing in atmosphere without burning up, deploying payload and keeping a relatively large crew (i.e. mission specialists) comfortable -- extra baggage you wouldn't want to lug with you on a lunar mission. Johnny Zweig University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Computer Science --------------------------------Disclaimer:------------------------------------ Rule 1: Don't believe everything you read. Rule 2: Don't believe anything you read. Rule 3: There is no Rule 3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------