Plans A, B and C to the Moon
Nasa’s Review of U.S. Human Space Flight (HSF) Plans Committee have been hearing proposals for alternative Shuttle replacement craft. The Ares I crew and Ares V cargo launch vehicles are Plan A. The HSF Committee has heard two other proposals at their meeting last week.
Discovery News is calling one of these proposals Plan B:
They call it the side-mount shuttle. It’s basically the space shuttle system without the winged orbiters.
Preliminary NASA studies show that using the existing shuttle’s solid rocket boosters, fuel tank and main engines as a launch system, with some minor modifications, could be the foundation of an alternative launch system to the planned Ares rocket program currently under development.
If there is a Plan B then the third proposal is definitely Plan C, formally named DIRECT:
DIRECT is an alternative approach to launching missions planned under NASA’s new mandate: The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). DIRECT would replace the separate Ares-I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) and Ares-V Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) with one single “Jupiter” launcher, capable of performing both roles.
Both of these systems use standard shuttle SRB’s and a modified external tank. They both also use SSME’s as a cost cutting measure.
Buzz Aldrin has other ideas:
Instead, we should stretch out the six remaining shuttle flights to 2015—one per year. Sure, that will cost money, but we can more than make up for it by canceling the troubled Ares I. In its place, we should use the old reliable Delta IV Heavy or the Atlas V satellite launchers, upgraded for human flight. (It won’t take much.) Then fast-track the Orion to fly on a Delta IV or Atlas V as soon as possible.
There seems to be plenty of options, it’s up to the HSF Committee to pick one and get us back to the moon.
Below is some video from the side-mount shuttle concept:
In: Space · Tagged with: Ares, Moon, NASA, Shuttle
