Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Is This NASA's Problem?
MarK Eby — (archived)

The Von Braun Master Plan: National Dream or National Nightmare?

Ken has been vigorously promoting the NASA plan I dislike the most I've ever heard of from NASA. I think the article above provides some perspective on it. Ken has compared the Langrange base as an airport Hub. It should be noted that none other than Buzz Aldrin supports this idea, but as an engineer who specializes in cutting waste and inefficiency it makes me want to gag.

1) You don't build a hub for 2 air flights a year. Hubs are used because they promote overall efficiency eventhough individual travelers find them inefficient. A single plane following typical routes between nonhub cities uses far more fuel than if it flew direct. The system is efficient overall because large planes are used between hub cities transporting a large number of people more fuel (or cost) efficiently than could be justified by the volume between smaller cities. Without high volume hubs make no sense. Building a hub at the start of the airline industry would have been a huge waste of money. It is putting the cart before the horse.

2) Ken has not really addressed the issue that going through a Lagrange base makes transfer to any near term objects such as NEOs, Mars, and the Moon harder. Ken listed a bunch of references for delta V estimates, but I didn't have any problems with his numbers. It was the application I disagreed with.

3) This is also where I disagree with Gary on a related infrastructure issue. I don't think we can commit to Martian colonization and cycler spacecraft until we send some missions of exploration there. I also think we need CATS for colonization.

Regards,
Mark

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