Phil said:

>Me, I just hope the CEV is not the bastard child of algore's
>vaunted X-33 "Hangar Queen".

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X-33 as an SSTO RLV was hard to do ("hard" as in being physically impossible). Capsules can be dirt easy to do. Word from the street has it the CEV will be a scaled up version of the Apollo CM. The Apollo CM is a very old design. I think(?) the first drawings of the Apollo CM were done around 1959. I am not at all happy the CEV will be an Apollo CM. Astronauts can not return from Mars in a Apollo CM. A minimum Lift-over-Drag (L/D) ratio is required for a Mars return capsule to keep the deceleration loading below a maximum allowed value. The average L/D for the AS-501 Apollo CM was 0.37 which is not good enough for Mars return. By going with an Apollo CM shape for CEV, the mission designers are making a very clear political statement that Mars is not part of the agenda.

So what's the real agenda? That's the $64,000 question. Maybe they're sincere that they'll slowly upgrade the technology after they get back to the Moon and evolve it into a manned Mars mission. I'm skeptical because that's an expensive way to do aerospace engineering. Another possible agenda is they're sending 4 to 6 guys to the Moon for flags-and-footprints with the intent of distracting the public's attention. While they've got everyone looking at the Moon, they quietly tear down the Space Exploration infrastructure. After the public gets bored with flags-and-footprints, they can then pull the plug on Space Exploration and there will be nobody left to complain about the program's orderly conclusion.

Gary