"Black Horse (not Dark Horse--I've made the same mistake myself) was a damned good idea, although the concept has evolved a bit since it first came out (early designs were a bit optimistic.) I've worked with Mitch Clapp off and on, and he has a lot on the ball. Pioneer Rocketplane was the head of the team I worked on to bid on the RASCAL project."

I see 4 passengers, perhaps a separable crew compartment allowing yet another abort mode. 1 US crew, 1 ESA, 1 Japan, 1 Russian; if you go to 7 crew, 2 flights for ISS. Separable crew comparment - great for flight testing as well as operations...

By way of disclosure, I own stock in Orbital, which would benefit from the mini-shuttle going forward. That said, my thinking is that the mini-shuttle is only the second best option. The EELVs can be improved doing ISS logistics.

My opinion is that Pioneer does not have the experience here in actual construction and test of flight items - it has to be Skunk Works or Phantom Works, with other firms engineers called in as contractors as needed on a "No Bid" basis.

"As for asteroid detection, I think we could spend more NASA money on this, but a considerable improvement in detection could be accomplished by simply spending more on opening and operating more Earth-based facilities."

Would that it were that easy, but it's not, despite the delusions of a few of the Mars Nuts who congregate here. Definitely we need more money spent on Earth based systems, whether Pan-Stars or LSST, and I have no problem with shifting funds from NASA to the AF or National Science Foundation to do either of these or both.

But the raw mechanics of threat detection do not work the way many want to believe. First off, comets, not asteroids, most likely are the largest part of threat, being responsible for extinctions. These are not going to be identified by repeated periodic close passes to the Earth - they'll simply come in from great distance. If they're burned out, dead, they're also dark, making detection extremely difficult -

The threat and the requirements were both analyzed by Dr Mazanek and his team at NASA Langley - their solution is CAPS, and they know what they are doing. I myself would prefer to see the system deployment internationalized, to minimize the cost, and a different architecture based on existing vehicles used:

http://www.geocities.com/epgrondine

Again, my opinion, but with only about 1 out 7 supporting manned Mars flight, and 6 out 7 supporting mankind not going the way of the dinosaurs, I think a return to the Moon for asteroid and comet detection is the only thing which will keep the manned space infrastructure in place until manned flight to Mars is possible.

ep