On Nov 17, 2009, at 5:42 PM, Andrew Crystall wrote:
On 17 Nov 2009 at 12:48, Ronn! Blankenship wrote:
starts here . . .
The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets
The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - TIME
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933945,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/yl4evjq
(Includes the "5 Worst Inventions of the Year" and a poll for voting
on the ranking: Ares is not #1 in that poll.)
The Ares I darn well should be. I mean, the Ares V is a good enough
concept for bulk launch, never mind that the Saturn V was carrying
arround 75% of the same payload in the late 60's, but sticking
Astronaughts on top of a rocket at this stage? Insane. Spaceplanes,
allready.
AndrewC
Considering the fact that the only two "loss of vehicle and crew"
events NASA has ever had to deal with that actually involved going
into or coming back from space (not counting Apollo 1 in that, as it
was sitting on the ground when the fire occurred) involved a
spaceplane design -- one due to an SRB hull joint failure that burned
through the ET wall, the other due to a large (and undetected) hole in
the RCC leading edge of the wing -- and since the spaceplane design in
question does *not* include any abort options from liftoff to the
beginning of the RTLS window, and NASA is crossing their fingers that
nobody ever has to try an RTLS abort, I'd have to question why putting
crew on top of a rocket is "insane".
I'd much rather ride an Orion/Ares I than I would an STS flight. The
Orion/Ares I has a launch escape system at least as good as the one
used for Apollo, and has the SRB in the only place I'd really want one
-- well aft of the liquid fuel tanks and the crew cabin.
It may not be the *best* design, granted, but it's better than STS in
a lot of ways. About the only thing Ares I/Ares V can't do is
retrieve satellites and bring them back to earth. And I can't quite
recall STS ever using that capability, honestly.
"Go ahead and do it, you can apologize later." -- RADM Grace Hopper,
1906-1992
"The sunset is an illusion, but the beauty is real." -- Richard Bach
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