Space Launch System enters full-scale development.

[Iroscato]

*Rubs hands gleefully* I'm very much looking forward to seeing what this baby can do in a few years time

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1888 ... n-landings

NASA’s Space Launch System, the USA’s first exploration-class spacecraft since the Space Shuttle, has officially passed the whiteboard formulation stage and moved into full-scale development. The SLS, which will be the most powerful rocket ever built, will allow NASA to land astronauts on Mars and captured asteroids, and perhaps other planets and moons throughout the Solar System as well. The first SLS mission should lift off no later than 2018, sending the Orion capsule around the Moon. Asteroid- and Mars-bound missions should follow a few years after that. The question is, will NASA be the first to send humans to Mars (probably no sooner than 2032) — or will a commercial company such as SpaceX get there much earlier?

NASA began the SLS’s design process way back in 2011. At the time, we knew the stated goal of the SLS – to try and re-use as many Space Shuttle components as possible, to get back into deep space as quickly and as cost effectively as possible — but we didn’t know exactly what form the SLS would take. Now that the formulation stage has been completed, and focus has shifted to actually developing and fabricating the launch system’s millions of constituent components, we have a very firm idea of what the SLS will be capable of, and thus what kind of missions NASA will task the SLS with.
The Space Launch System is broken up into blocks. Block I, the first and most simple design, consists of a core stage that’s lifted almost straight from the Space Shuttle: It has two Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SSRBs), and a first stage that’s fashioned out of a converted Space Shuttle External Tank (that big red cylinder thing — but on the SLS it’ll be painted white). Together with a modified Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (modified from the Delta IV), Block I will be able to lift around 70 metric tons (154,000 lbs) into low-Earth orbit. There is only expected to be one launch of the Block I variant. If all goes to plan, it will launch sometime in 2017 or 2018 and send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a circumlunar orbit around the dark side of the Moon.

The next variant of the SLS, Block IB, will use the same core stage as Block I — but instead of the modified Delta IV second stage, it’ll have the brand-new Exploration Upper Stage. The EUS has a lot of fuel and four RL10 rocket engines, boosting the total payload capacity to around 110 metric tons to LEO. Finally, at some point in the 2030s, Block II will arrive, which replaces the two SSRBs with new, “advanced boosters.” Block II will be capable of lifting around 155 metric tons to LEO.
By comparison, the Saturn V — which took NASA astronauts to the Moon — had a max LEO payload capacity of 118 metric tons, but it has long since been retired. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which is a much smaller and cheaper rocket than the SLS, will be able to put 55 metric tons into LEO. With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, there aren’t really any heavy lift launchers in operation: Ariane 5 (Arianespace) can only do 21 metric tons to LEO, while Delta IV (United Launch Alliance) can do 29 metric tons to LEO.

In short, NASA’s Space Launch System should be by far the most powerful operational rocket when it arrives in 2017-2018. SpaceX could decide to up-rate the Falcon Heavy, but I doubt it: With Falcon Heavy, SpaceX wants to compete with United Launch Alliance and Arianespace, which currently own the (incredibly lucrative) heavy lift market. A payload capacity of 55 tons is more than enough for that purpose. You only shoot for a capacity of 150 tons if you’re aiming at targets that are much farther than geostationary orbit — such as landing on the Moon or Mars or Europa.
The SLS’s primary payload will be the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), though it will undoubtedly be used to send other large spacecraft into deep space. The Orion capsule is what NASA will use to land astronauts on the Moon, captured asteroids, Mars, and any other interesting lumps of rock throughout the Solar System. The first manned Orion launch, to a captured asteroid in lunar orbit, is scheduled to occur in 2021. Combined with SpaceX’s crewed Dragon spacecraft and Boeing’s CST-100, things are looking up for human space exploration!

[Eternal_Freedom]

Sweet!

[SpottedKitty]

Intriguing. I wonder, though, how many of the old SSMEs and SRBs are still in refurbishable condition, or whether more can be built? The SSMEs in particular weren't easy or cheap to get right, and if they plan a lot of these flights, they'll need a lot of engines.

The payload numbers are interesting, too. 100+ tons to LEO (especially when you don't have to include a bulky, heavy Shuttle that has to be returned) means you're pretty much halfway to anywhere.

[Isolder74]

Wonderful. I wonder what will happen if we do have more Moon missions. I would love to be able to watch such a mission on the internet, live!

[Borgholio]

I hope I live long enough to see another Moon mission or a trip to Mars. The development timeline is comparable to the Apollo missions...and Apollo took a decade even with the kick in the pants of the Space Race. There's nothing stopping this from taking until my kids are having kids of their own...

[Iroscato]

I think it's coming. There's definitely encouraging noises from companies like Boeing and SpaceX, and NASA's laid out its 'Path to Mars' plan. The SLS will cost about $12 billion as far as I know, I highly doubt NASA would sink that much money just so we could fart off into orbit a few times. It'll have the most advanced spaceship ever built, the Orion, on board, and will have thrusters powerful enough to get us halfway across the solar system. Consider me optimistic for the future of the space industry

[Elheru Aran]

Do we intend fully to return to the Moon before we go to Mars? Or is it going to be more a case of building orbital facilities before launching towards Mars from orbit, bypassing the Moon on the way?

Just curious because I can see the notion being floated that we don't necessarily need that step of landing on the Moon again before we go to Mars, although personally I think it's pretty important as an initial step.

[Sea Skimmer]

We intend to do very little at present. Two test launches are planned for, both of which would orbit the moon, one unmanned and the second manned, but that is it. Nothing else is actually planned or budgeted, and in fact as of the last program review not even enough money budgeted to reach the goal of being capable of the the first test launch in 2017 (and that assumes no cost increases) the whole effort is presently pointless and undefined in any direct sense. Without more money in the budget it could be several additional years before NASA can even start building flight hardware. That will then increase total costs, and push everything back by as much or more, and thus delay the date at which NASA can even plan to commit later funds to actual useful launches.

But it is at least keeping some level of industrial base alive, which is a useful goal in its own right, though still does nothing to address the rapid implosion of US solid fuel booster rocket industrial base that has been happening since KEI, Trident D5 and the Space Shuttle all evaporated in the space of a few years as sources of funding.

Numerous additional 'reference missions' exist, but they functionally amount to nothing but detail design goals for delta V and payload mass requirements SLS must meet. Conducting any of them will depend on NASA getting at least another half billion a year on a sustained basis. Which you would think would be EASY, but its never proved to be since the late 1960s.

[Guardsman Bass]

On the bright side, it should be ready for service not too long before ISS drops into the ocean and frees up budgetary space in the manned space program to do something with it.

I'd love to have it just for the potential to launch larger robotic spacecraft and space telescopes as well, assuming the funding is ever present again for those.

[Sea Skimmer]

The original plan was the US would stop supporting ISS just before SLS started to be tested. Obama then extended the plan for ISS well past that date without identifying any source of additional funding, after he messed around with the booster program for no real reason and actually moved up the launch date for it. So that whole issue is just FUBAR for now.