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dreada5
Guest
Don't know if this has been discussed before, but does anyone know for a typical deep-space human mission whether NASA plans to carry out multiple CaLV (cargo launch vehicle) to assemble a large lunar/mars ships in orbit - before sending up the crew to dock?<br /><br />Will NASA even have multiple CaLV available to launch almost simultaneously for such an assembly task??<br /><br />How will Ares V launches compare in terms of cost with the current shuttle launches?<br /><br />Is it envisage that multiple Ares V launches will be used to deploy hardware to the lunar/martian surface for future base construction.<br /><br />I'm just thinking of the construction options that would become available with being able to launch multiple Ares V economically back to back and thus the ships/structures/bases etc that could be assembled.<br /><br />For example, a mars ship that has a habitable area almost as much as is available on the ISS, powerful nuclear engines and perhaps a single, heavy, thick-walled module that shields from cosmic radiation.