Admiral_Ritt
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I read the report by NASA regarding what pitiful payload a single shuttle could deliver for lunar exploration. A 500$ Mil dollar flight to send a small probe to land on the moon. I think it is generaly acknowledged here and other space sci sites, that when NASA was tasked with studing a mission it did not want to do, it just took the most costly,inefficient,ineffectual path plus imposibilty an High risk aversion, to prove to the public, that it's was not feasable.
While Using the Shuttle was not absolutely necessary, we could have taken advantage of its unique capabilties. Mainly to assemble a moon craft capable of 3 weeks of Manned Lunar surface exploration.
One of the main obstacles was the prohibition of propelants on shuttle payloads. Otherwise there was no reason a 3 section craft containing Habitation 2 landing modules and life support/power for a crew of 4, could not be assembled in stages.
The propulsion system (I think you would to launch 2 Centaur rockets for TLI and back) plus the Lunar modules propulsion system would have to be launched on commercial rockets to LEO.
The habitation module could be provided with a heat shield to aerobrake the returning craft to speed to allow a shuttle redezvous, saving the weight that would be required by a reentry-recovery system. With the discovery that there were indications of ice-water on the moon it would have been worth to explore the polar craters among other to-do list we missed in the apollo era.
While Using the Shuttle was not absolutely necessary, we could have taken advantage of its unique capabilties. Mainly to assemble a moon craft capable of 3 weeks of Manned Lunar surface exploration.
One of the main obstacles was the prohibition of propelants on shuttle payloads. Otherwise there was no reason a 3 section craft containing Habitation 2 landing modules and life support/power for a crew of 4, could not be assembled in stages.
The propulsion system (I think you would to launch 2 Centaur rockets for TLI and back) plus the Lunar modules propulsion system would have to be launched on commercial rockets to LEO.
The habitation module could be provided with a heat shield to aerobrake the returning craft to speed to allow a shuttle redezvous, saving the weight that would be required by a reentry-recovery system. With the discovery that there were indications of ice-water on the moon it would have been worth to explore the polar craters among other to-do list we missed in the apollo era.
