Could a shuttle go to the moon (and maybe Mars)?

[brandbll]

To be radiation PROOF i'm guessing a lot more than that. And finances do matter if your pouring them into something that you could do for cheaper and would be much better at the task at hand. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="3">You wanna talk some jive? I'll talk some jive. I'll talk some jive like you've never heard!</font></p> </div>

 

[strandedonearth]

Theoretically, pretty much nothing is impossible if you throw enough money at it. It's very impractical though. Sticking a reactor in the payload bay would take up most if not all of the available payload. You'd be better off designing a new vehicle from a clean sheet for the job.<br /><br />By the time you rebuilt a Shuttle Orbiter for the job, you'd pretty much have a new vehicle anyways.

 

[mattblack]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061057134/qid=1144130504/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-4022622-9365705?s=books&v=glance&n=283155<br /><br />In the above novel by Stephen Baxter: they send the Shuttle Discovery to Titan. Don't worry -- it's certainly not as bad as you might think. The book is well-written but a bit depressing, the science is good, and you'll feel you've been there with the Astronauts. It was also eerily prophetic for a 1998 novel: Shuttle Columbia being destroyed in 2004(!), a hawkish, Right-Wing administration in the White House (that makes the current one look like wimps by comparison), terrorism, conflict with China and the Middle-East, a new bold venture into space...<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>