R
radarredux
Guest
My initial question is: How mature is aerocapture?<br /><br />The reason I ask is that the t/Space architecture required aerocapture/aerobraking for returns from the Moon instead of plunging directly into Earth's atmosphere for a direct landing. There seems to be a lot of potential value to exploiting Earth's atmosphere that isn't being taken advantage of in the current ESAS.<br /><br />PROPOSAL:<br /><br />Since one of the concerns against the t/Space architecture is that it doesn't provide an abort directly to Earth capability, why not focus on a t/Space architecture for cargo-only trips?<br /><br />Salient features:<br /><ul type="square"><li>The vehicle would be a precision landing vertical takeoff, vertical landing spacecraft that would only operate between the Lunar surface and LEO.<li>It would use aerocapture on returning to LEO to minimize fuel costs.<li>It would be 100% reusable. Only fuel and LOX (and a fresh cargo) would be needed for each trip.<li>It would be autonomous, cargo-only, thus reducing safety requirements.<li>There could be a family of different size vehicles. Initially a small pilot program could test the idea, but it could still be usefull delivering pathfinder-class rovers.<li>It could be used to land rovers on the Moon. Rover projects would need to only concentrate on the rover; surface delivery would be taken care of by the reusable lander.<li>Once humans are on the Lunar surface it could deliver all sorts of necessary cargo to the surface.<li>It could return cargo (e.g., Lunar samples, research results, etc.) to LEO, which would then be returned to Earth's surface by traditional capsule (or whatever).<li>The engines would be kerosene/LOX or methane/LOX.<li>Initially both fuel and LOX would be delivered from Earth's surface, later LOX would be generated on the Moon further reducing costs.<br /></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></ul><br />As experience and confidence is gained, a human version could be put into operations. Then a larger potential number of organizations