Re: Re. SPACE: Economic Role for Manned Space Stations

From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Sun Jul 18 1999 - 05:35:23 MDT


In a message dated 99-07-18 01:06:55 EDT, Alintelbot@aol.com wrote:

> the Shuttle, as a design and as a concept,
> is
> increasingly inefficient. What's fascinating is that there's no real
reason
> we couldn't be going beyond Earth orbit with it after some retrofitting.
To
> my mind, a retrofitted Shuttle would make an ideal vehicle for shipping
> hardware to the Moon for, say, a permament base.

I know we've got real rocket scientists here (I only play one on my
computer), but I don't think this is right. Why carry WINGS (and reentry
tiles) to the moon? (Even though that was an image I saw often enough in the
science fiction art of my earliest youth -- on the covers of paperbacks that
were already yellowing then.) Which is not to say that the shuttle cargo bay
isn't plenty large enough to carry a reusable translunar tug and an
associated lander . . .

     Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
     Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
      http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
                         "Civilization is protest against nature;
                  progress requires us to take control of evolution."
                                      -- Thomas Huxley



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