Submission + - Daily Kos: Rockets to nowhere (dailykos.com)
Phoghat writes: "The end of the space shuttle approaches and its primary legacy, the International Space Station, is essentially finished. Soon the new 2010 NASA reauth bill will really kick in, a new era of cost-effective space exploration will dawn and like a zombie that keeps lurching about with arms outstretched no matter how many bullets or kitchen implements are put into its rotten head, the undead "The Spawn Of Ares" rises from the grave to feed on the blood of taxpayers.
More accurately, it's kind of like a rocket-bridge to nowhere. Except it's worse: there are plenty of places for rockets to go, this one included; our vast unexplored solar system beckons! It's just that this one probably won't go to any of them because there's barely a snowball's chance in hell it will ever be completed. And without a prolonged funding commitment, even the early costs could quickly swell up and delay or eliminate rockets that will go somewhere.
Meanwhile, there are smaller, nimble rockets capable of performing the same tasks over multiple missions already in final flight testing that will soon be available at a Meanwhile, there are smaller, nimble rockets capable of performing the same tasks over multiple missions already in final flight testing that will soon be available at a fraction of the cost We have every reason to believe NASA can build revolutionary deep space vehicles in orbit using these smaller ground-to-orbit rockets, because a 500-ton space station has now been assembled in low earth orbit using that very method. And folks, a 500-ton departure stage already in orbit would be a lot of spaceship. Forget about lunar return or a Near Earth Asteroid; in terms of sheer mass, 500 tons parked in low orbit represents enough fuel, supplies, and hardware to damn near fly a crew to Jupiter and back."
More accurately, it's kind of like a rocket-bridge to nowhere. Except it's worse: there are plenty of places for rockets to go, this one included; our vast unexplored solar system beckons! It's just that this one probably won't go to any of them because there's barely a snowball's chance in hell it will ever be completed. And without a prolonged funding commitment, even the early costs could quickly swell up and delay or eliminate rockets that will go somewhere.
Meanwhile, there are smaller, nimble rockets capable of performing the same tasks over multiple missions already in final flight testing that will soon be available at a Meanwhile, there are smaller, nimble rockets capable of performing the same tasks over multiple missions already in final flight testing that will soon be available at a fraction of the cost We have every reason to believe NASA can build revolutionary deep space vehicles in orbit using these smaller ground-to-orbit rockets, because a 500-ton space station has now been assembled in low earth orbit using that very method. And folks, a 500-ton departure stage already in orbit would be a lot of spaceship. Forget about lunar return or a Near Earth Asteroid; in terms of sheer mass, 500 tons parked in low orbit represents enough fuel, supplies, and hardware to damn near fly a crew to Jupiter and back."
