From: mark@unicorn.com
Date: Wed Jul 21 1999 - 06:11:13 MDT
paul@i2.to wrote:
>Completely unnecessary. With the right booster, the shuttle without *any*
>modifications could easily reach lunar orbit.
With the right booster, my car could easily reach lunar orbit. Would that
make it "an ideal vehicle for shipping hardware to the Moon"? No.
>If we cut the crew down
>to 5, the shuttle could stay in orbit for over a month.
No it couldn't, unless they've improved it significantly lately. The fuel
cells are the main limitation, not crew size; most of the shuttle's power
consumption is independent of crew size.
>Needless to say, the shuttle as an existing technology could easily be >"retrofitted"
>for travel and small payload delivery around cis-lunar space and the various
>lagrange points.
And it would be absurdly inefficient and far more expensive than building
a real lunar vehicle from scratch. Why bother?
Mark
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