Save Altair?

[rockett]

This is a purely speculative spinoff thought from another thread. There is nothing I know of to support even the idea being floated. (excuse me if it is a little tongue in cheeck)

"In a galaxy far, far, away..."

The Shuttles are still flying, the ISS still in orbit, and all is right with the world.
After the cancellation of Constellation, the decision is made to move ahead with the Altair lunar lander and a reusable lunar tug.
Altair is redesigned in a modular fashion to be hauled into LEO by the Shuttles, and assembled in orbit at the ISS.
It lands on the moon years ahead of when it would had Constellation been completed.

Is this a workable idea, or am I just dreamin?

 

[pathfinder_01]

The trouble is altair was not even funded so no development took place. Not to mention Altair might be a bad bais to draw upon. The altair was going to be brake to park orion into orbit around the moon(to save even more mass to orbit for the ares 1). Basically the Ares 1 beeped the pouch..... It forced Ares V to become even more massive, altair to pick up the slack and Orion to become less capable(Orion block 1).

 

[edkyle99]

The trouble is altair was not even funded so no development took place. Not to mention Altair might be a bad bais to draw upon. The altair was going to be brake to park orion into orbit around the moon(to save even more mass to orbit for the ares 1). Basically the Ares 1 beeped the pouch..... It forced Ares V to become even more massive, altair to pick up the slack and Orion to become less capable(Orion block 1).

There once was a study that looked at using Shuttle, in concert with existing expendable rockets, to perform a minimalist style "Early Lunar Access" mission. The lander, obviously, would have been much smaller than Altair concepts.
http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/ELA.html

- Ed Kyle

 

[rockett]

There once was a study that looked at using Shuttle, in concert with existing expendable rockets, to perform a minimalist style "Early Lunar Access" mission. The lander, obviously, would have been much smaller than Altair concepts.
http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/ELA.html

- Ed Kyle

Thanks Ed! Fascinating stuff!

It also got me to thinking maaaaaybe it wasn't such an outlandish idea. A little digging showed that an ISS to lunar transfer orbit was quite possible (simple hohman transfer).

Also turned up a study like the one you found:
Human Lunar Return (HLR) - yes from the same website
http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/HLR.html
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/humeturn.htm

And Buzz Aldrin's XM:
http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/arti...s-mars-is-within-our-reach-heres-how/19380071