Im not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask this question or not. But here goes: Has anyone put together a project plan showing what would be needed to land a Shuttle on the Moon, and return it to Earth? If NASA insists on continuing with the Shuttle as the primary transportation vehicle for government missions this question, and the resulting analysis, would be necessary. Any comments? Chad Lupkes chadlupkes@...
This idea will not work, the reasons are explained at this web link.
The short answers are:
1) The Shuttle is not capable of reaching the Moon.
2) If a Shuttle were in the vicinity of the Moon it has no way of soft-landing there.
Cheers,
Charles R.
Landing a shuttle on the moon would require extensive infrastructure there, including a runway, and the other facilities to set the shuttle up on end, add external fuel tank, and maybe booster rockets. But the shuttle can not land without aerobraking first, so it could not land there even with those facilities. It is just not possible. Sincerely, Jay Huebner
Hi there Jay,
> Landing a shuttle on the moon would require extensive infrastructure
> there, including a runway, and the other facilities to set the shuttle
A runway of course is as useless on the Moon as wings because there is
no atmosphere.
Soft-Landing on the Moon requires a powered vertical terminal descent
using rockets all the way.
(Unless we use tethered momentum exchange).
A runway is neither necessary nor useful.
The SSEME's cannot be used after the ET fuel is consumed.
ET fuel is liquid hydrogen, which cannot be stored for more than a day
or two,
it boils off rapidly.
The OMS engines do not have enough thrust to cushion the load, plus they
point in
the wrong direction for a belly landing. A tail landing would be
unstable,
after touchdown it would flop onto its back or landing gear, neither of
which is designed to
take those kinds of impact in 1/6th G.
And there is not enough OMS propellant anyway, even if we filled the
entire cargo bay
with OMS Extension Kits.
> up on end, add external fuel tank, and maybe booster rockets. But the
> shuttle can not land without aerobraking first, so it could not land
Oh, you are talking about the shuttle getting back to Earth after
landing there.
Hah, forget it :-)
I had been assuming a one-way trip (even that is not feasible).
This would be an amusing cartoon idea, picture a Shuttle Orbiter being
flung off
the Moon by a mass driver :-)
> there even with those facilities. It is just not possible.
Indeed.
Why bother trying ?
It is a case of "you cannot get there from here".
If we want to land on the Moon there are much cheaper ways of doing it.
The cost of developing an entirely new system from scratch would be much
cheaper than
trying to force fit the Shuttle into that role.
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> I?m not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask this question or> > > Has anyone put together a project plan showing what would be needed to
> land a Shuttle on the Moon, and return it to Earth?
we get given several trillion dollars."
> If NASA insists
> on continuing with the Shuttle as the primary transportation vehicle
> for government missions this question, and the resulting analysis,
> would be necessary.
> Any comments?
Really bad idea. Most of the space shuttle is equipment designed to
safely reenter the earths atmosphere and land on the earth. This
equipment weighs a lot; and carrying that lot around massively
increases the amount of fuel that would be required to make the
trip.
The necessary fuel cannot be carried in a single space
shuttle, and would require the shuttle to be refueled in orbit.
The costs of lifting that amount of fuel required to orbit would
be astronomical; far more than a purpose built mission.
A refueled Space Shuttle could land on the moon, in theory as it
has easily enough power. It would have to land tail first
however, and would require many other modifications
but it just isn't worth doing- there's better ways to make this
trip.
> Chad Lupkes
>
> chadlupkes@... chadlupkes@...
civilization?"