William Atkins
Sunday, 05 July 2009 20:40
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
Alternative plans for the United States to return to the Moon are being kicked around in the space community. One NASA engineer is proposing a shuttle-derived plan that would get the United States to the Moon at one-fifth the cost than the current Constellation plan. We could call it the Cheapellation plan.
According to the Sunday, July 5, 2009 San Francisco Chronicle’s article
Backup plan to get NASA to moon cheaper, by Seth Borenstein (Associated Press writer),
“Like a car salesman pushing a luxury vehicle that the customer no longer can afford, NASA has pulled out of its back pocket a deal for a cheaper ride to the moon.”
John Shannon’s Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle proposal
The plan, which is spearheaded by NASA shuttle program manager
John Shannon, uses the space shuttle system (with the current versions of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and external tank (ET). It, however, replaces the orbiter with either an unmanned cargo container or the manned Orion space capsule mounted on the side of the ET just like the orbiter is attached today.
Either way, they could go to the International Space Station and, most importantly, to the Moon at 20% of the cost of the currently being developed Constellation project.
Shannon calls his plan the
Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle.
Borenstein compares the Shannon plan with the Constellation plan when he says,
“It won't be as powerful [as Constellation], and its design is a little dated. Think of it as a base-model Ford station wagon instead of a tricked-out Cadillac Escalade.”
NASA’s Constellation plan is expected to cost $35 billion to build new rockets (Ares I and V solid rocket boosters, modified from the current SRBs used for the shuttle program, and a modified external tank (ET), also used for the shuttle), along with a lot of other new technologies to support the new program.
Shannon’s plan is to use the original SRBs and ET, and not design and develop new ones. His estimated cost is around $6.6 billion—about 19% (just less than one-fifth) the cost of Constellation.
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