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

GBurch1@aol.com
Sun, 18 Jul 1999 07:35:23 EDT

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
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                         "Civilization is protest against nature; 
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