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soccerguy789
Guest
So, I look on the forums and all I'm seeing are people bashing the Ares Rockets, namely Ares I.<br /><br />In wake of the anouncement of the Ares IV, we have come to see a very attractive aspect of the Ares series: modularity.<br /><br />Having recently looked in depth at the "direct launch" proposal for project constelation, whihc designs and operates 1 launch vehicle class, with a 70-80 tonne lift capacity, pulling two launches per mission. The logic behind the design was that you get the same lunar mission with lower developement costs.<br /><br />However, with the Ares IV announced, we see three seperate rockets, serving three very serperate lift capacities, constructed from few base components:<br /><br />5-stage SRB<br />SDLV Fuel tank Core<br />CEV launch liquid fueled 2nd stage.<br /><br />If you really want to, you can count the EDS as a fourth component, and as second stage to the HLV, but I'm counting it as a payload. still, you have these components, and you just snap them together depending on what your mission is.<br /><br />Need to put a CEV in orbit? Ares I<br />Need to put some serious cargo on the moon? Ares V<br />Have ISRU and a reusable lander on the moon and want to swap out crew? Ares IV<br /><br />The way I see it, we get a bargin by bilding three boosters from three (or four) basic components.