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I agree with Tom that Buck's post is very reasonable
Gary — (archived)

Buck Galaxy said:

"I like the idea of democratizing the Middle East, and I love the space exploration initiative. "

I do interplanetary spacecraft thermal protection systems for a living. It was clear to me if Kerry had won, I'd be out on the streets unemployed within a few months. I was not alone with this opinion. For the last few months, a good fraction of NASA has been standing on one foot waiting to see which way this election was going to go. It was clear to the political realists amongst us that the Space Program was finished if Kerry won.

Thank God that Kerry lost!

However I am concerned about where Bush's space exploration initiative is going. There was some talk that eventually we'd send people to Mars under Bush's plan. Unfortunately most of the Crewed Exploration Vehicle (CEV) designs that I have seen are not appropriate for Mars return. Lunar return trajectories come in around 11 km/sec while Mars return trajectories come in around 13 km/sec and higher. The Apollo Command Module (CM) was a simple design and just barely worked for lunar return. It will not work for Mars return because the entry corridor is too small for the Lift/Drag ratio of the Apollo CM. A significantly different CEV geometry from the CM is required for Mars return. Unfortunately all proposed CEV designs that I have seen are CM derivative. Either the folks in control do not realize that an Apollo CM will not work for Mars return --or-- they're not serious about sending people to Mars.

Gary

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