nec208:<br />Space shuttle is a bad concept.<br /><br />Me:<br />I don't see the shuttle as a bad concept, its just one that was way ahead of its time and proved too expensive for practical use. The shuttle has done all that it has been tasked to do and almost all it has been asked to do.<br /><br />The shuttle elements could have been utilized in the shuttle "C" concept to haul up the heavy stuff. IMO, NASAs mistake in recent years was not developing shuttle "C" and designing ISS around that capability.<br /><br />nec208:<br />What NASA needs do and the space buffs also the private sector is think small not big. <br /><br />1 You cannot go Mars <br />2 You cannot build space station the size like ISS <br />3 You cannot build moon outpost the size of the ISS <br />4 You cannot build big space shuttle its size<br /><br />Me:<br />I agree that NASA and buffs should think small to some extent. As long as the 3 Ps (Public, politicians, press) are unwilling to commit/support bigger space ventures, we have no choice but to think small. On your other points...<br /><br />1...We can go to mars if the private sector can get the cost of going to low earth orbit down. NASA would then focus on the getting to mars part as opposed to getting to earth orbit, then mars. Even so, the 3 Ps will ultimately determine whether we go to mars or not as long as mars remains within reach of only government programs.<br /><br />2...Well, we did build ISS and ISS is the size of ISS. It just isn't very economical is all. But considering where else money gets wasted, I'd rather have ISS than no ISS.<br /><br />3...I don't know how big the lunar base will be. It could be the size of ISS if the nation were to commit to funding such a base. But most likely it will be much smaller in scale if it occurs at all.<br /><br />4...And again, we did build the shuttle and it is as big as it is. The mistake here was letting DOD hitch a free ride. The shuttle we know was based on the DOD requirement for getting 65,000 pounds payload <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>