Its about time that NASA did this. Like so many space enthusiasts, I was sad when Apollo ended. Im glad that were finally back on track. I was also saddened when our Shuttle program ended too. I believe it wasnt necessary. Its my opinion that over the years, NASA had lost its way. Pundits of the Shuttle program contended that though ambitious, the system, because of limited potential altitude and range, could never be used effectively. I disagreed. All the agency needed was a little imagination. The vehicle when launched expended over half of its fuel just to reach the sound barrier. Thirty years ago, I asked myself why the engineers were content with this. Instead of launching vertically, why not go horizontal? The vehicle could be modified to sit atop a separate launch platform suspended atop a Magnetic Levitation rail system. This launch system, through the use of its own jet engines and /or solid rocket boosters, would propel the vehicle down a five mile track to a speed just below Mach 1 whereas it releases the Shuttle, the Solids ignite, the vehicle system flies to about sixty-thousand feet, the on board main engines throttle up from just above idle to full power (used primarily for steering up to this time) and off to orbit, by which time the system should still have plenty of fuel left over to possibly even get to the moon and back. A modified Apollo era Lunar Module can be carried in the payload bay, enabling us to once again explore the moon. Upon returning to the Earth, there should still be sufficient fuel to slow the Shuttle to reentry velocity (about 17,000 mph). The external tank is jettisoned and the Shuttle returns to Florida just as before. With the exception of losing the Shuttles external tank and the first stage of the LM, everythings reusable. This was an idea I had for the Shuttle many years ago, and I dont know if it was ever envisioned by NASA engineers, I certainly thought it was innovative. Its my view that NASA, to coin the cliche, has always suffered from having champagne taste on a beer budget. Instead of improving on the technology that we know works, they hedged their bets. They spent tens of billions developing the Shuttles replacement, only to finally abandon the project because of severe limitations in current materials technology. This money in my opinion, should have been used to upgrade what we had. Im happy that NASA is finally embracing a return to practicality. I just hope that the Shuttle idea has not been shelved indefinitely.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:34:20 +0000
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