Wild Logistics question

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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