The shuttle main engines can be encased in an atmospheric re-entry fairing, fixed to the base of the External Tank, and voila, you have a HLLV that's probably as powerful as an old Saturn-V. The engines can separate from the tank, reenter the atmosphere and be recovered, and the tank can burn up. The manned CEV can be put on top of the tank, axial configuration rather than piggyback.
The ET refuelling arm that we see retracting moments before a shuttle launch would have to be redesigned I suppose. They might also design a shield plating to put under the CEV that, if the ET were to explode during liftoff, would absorb any shrapnel, and propel the CEV away from the explosion at no more than, say, 10 gees. They could make it out of a thick mat of superpolymer like Zylon, which is already being used in fuselage wall panelling to protect airline passengers from turbine engines that throw a blade.
Space/Science » in reply to re: The space 'initiative'
re: CEV together with a HLLV
The whole thread (25 posts)
- Absolutely zero mention of the new space initiative in State of the Union address
- SpacePolitics.com: presidential candidates' views on space... (NO AFFILIATION with me)
- re: Prepare to wait at least four months.
- re: Absolutely zero mention of the new space initiative in State of the Union address
- The space 'initiative'
- re: Absolutely zero mention of the new space initiative in State of the Union address
- My take on that