LRO development Options

[jamescanvin]

Just read this interesting article about LRO

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/28apr_lro.htm

"This is the first in a string of missions," says Gordon Chin, project scientist for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "More robots will follow, about one per year, leading up to manned flight" no later than 2020."

One per Year? Is this just wishful thinking or have any tentitve plans been mentioned for follow up missions after LRO? If the next one is going to be 2009/10 then I guess some desisions about it will have to be made fairly soon.

James

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

What it's supposed to be -- according to Mark Borkowski's talk ( http://www.digitalspace.com/presentations/...kowski-rlep.mp3 ) -- is a vehicle which can later be used, with little modification, as an emergency cargo carrier for any VSE crew that gets stranded on the Moon for a long period of time due to a stand-down of the manned VSE systems. That is, it is -- as he said -- " a lunar equivalent of the Russian Progress cargo carrier", capable of landing as much as 3.5 metric tons of payload on the Moon. Since RLEP-2's official payload is only about a ton, there are currently plans to request additional payloads on it provided by private companies -- as well as consideration of having it carry some equipment to the Moon in advance for the first manned expedition to Shakleton Crater.

HOWEVER; I'm also hearing fuzzy rumors that the current RLEP-2 project is in serious trouble -- which I'll hold off on until I have some details.

[Bob Shaw]

If there's an impactor mission using the Raytheon proposal, then it may take elements of their previously (allegedly successful) kinetic energy kill vehicle. I've cobbled together a graphic using elements from the Raytheon company site to give an idea of the vehicle - it's got an interesting take on attitude control/translation with rocket nozzles set, I presume, around the vehicle's CG.

Bob Shaw

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

If there's an impactor mission using the Raytheon proposal, then it may take elements of their previously (allegedly successful) kinetic energy kill vehicle. I've cobbled together a graphic using elements from the Raytheon company site to give an idea of the vehicle - it's got an interesting take on attitude control/translation with rocket nozzles set, I presume, around the vehicle's CG.

Bob Shaw

Very cool. Something sci-fi writers rarely seem to get, that kinetic-energy really is a very good way to dump energy into something. When people are busy shooting at each other in space someday, they will likely be firing bullets, not ray guns.

[ljk4-1]

Very cool. Something sci-fi writers rarely seem to get, that kinetic-energy really is a very good way to dump energy into something. When people are busy shooting at each other in space someday, they will likely be firing bullets, not ray guns.

Oh please, Don - human beings would NEVER take their aggressions and
other primate behaviors into space.

Is there a sarcasm/irony face available?

FYI - It has already happened at least once. Salyut 3 had a self-defense
gun which it test fired. You can see it here:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_ops2.html

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

Oh please, Don - human beings would NEVER take their aggressions and
other primate behaviors into space.

Is there a sarcasm/irony face available?

FYI - It has already happened at least once. Salyut 3 had a self-defense
gun which it test fired. You can see it here:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_ops2.html

I believe both Russia and the United States have developed anti-satellite satellites. Sven Grahn has a nice page about the Soviet Polyot experiments here: ASAT

When I was at Caltech around 1980, Seasat malfunctioned shortly after launch. There were many interesting rumors circulating about this satellite, from graudate students associated with JPL. One was that the military was able to Fourier-analyze the Seasat data to detect the wakes of nuclear submarines. The other was that the Soviet Union knew that and destroyed the satellite with ground-based laser while it passed over their territory. Just rumors of course...