StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Found this thing that looks like something out of Star Wars.

LOL that is great... i wish that was real

It will be if the designers have their say. It's basically a crew shuttlecraft designed to ride atop a Delta-IV heavy lift vehicle.

If only they'd learn that spaceplanes are a waste of money..

Well, this concept is a lot more simple than the existing orbiter. It shouldn't require half the refitting that the current one needs, and it uses an existing, and fairly inexpensive, launch vehicle.

Crayz9000 wrote:Well, this concept is a lot more simple than the existing orbiter. It shouldn't require half the refitting that the current one needs, and it uses an existing, and fairly inexpensive, launch vehicle.

Yeah, but its pointless to have a glider design. It requires too much garbage like tile shielding which was the issue in the space shuttle! We should just go back to the capsules with ablative metal head shields, they work far better then the stupid tiles.

The one in the picture is based on a titan style lift vehicle

A note for grins this was what the concept art for the origianal Space Shuttle looked like.

Isolder74 wrote:The one in the picture is based on a titan style lift vehicle

Delta 4 Heavy, it looks like.

kojikun wrote:

Crayz9000 wrote:Well, this concept is a lot more simple than the existing orbiter. It shouldn't require half the refitting that the current one needs, and it uses an existing, and fairly inexpensive, launch vehicle.

Yeah, but its pointless to have a glider design. It requires too much garbage like tile shielding which was the issue in the space shuttle! We should just go back to the capsules with ablative metal head shields, they work far better then the stupid tiles.

Capsules also take a bit of resources to locate if you want to do it Apollo style, unless you have a carrier group handy to pick them up.

It looks like NASA is only going to use this for some manned experiment missions while their lifting will be done with conventional Atlas and Delta configurations.

phongn wrote: Capsules also take a bit of resources to locate if you want to do it Apollo style, unless you have a carrier group handy to pick them up.

Splash them down into the Gulf of Mexico and land-based helicopters could do the job. We'd be saving hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions with the reduced weight and complexity anyway so paying for a big recovery force wouldn't be that difficult. GPS and a radio beacon to broadcast that data would make finding them quite easy.

Anyway, we've been able to bring down ICBM warheads within five miles since the 50's, and now most hit within 500 meters. I don’t see why a crew capsule is going to be that much worse.

phongn wrote:It looks like NASA is only going to use this for some manned experiment missions while their lifting will be done with conventional Atlas and Delta configurations.

IIRC, it's designed as a crew ferry for the ISS.

And yes, it is a Delta IV Heavy. I read up on it a while back.

DAMMIT! Just build a feekin space elevator!

Vorlon1701 wrote:DAMMIT! Just build a feekin space elevator!

Do you have any Idea what that would entail?

Isolder74 wrote:

Found this thing that looks like something out of Star Wars.

It doesn't look that much like an Y-wing.

Sea Skimmer wrote:Anyway, we've been able to bring down ICBM warheads within five miles since the 50's, and now most hit within 500 meters. I don’t see why a crew capsule is going to be that much worse.

It's somewhat more difficult to get an accurate deorbit than to chuck a missile on a ballistic trajectory, but yes, it'd be much cheaper.

Simon H.Johansen wrote:

Isolder74 wrote:

Found this thing that looks like something out of Star Wars.

It doesn't look that much like an Y-wing.

Take out the central blue cylinder...