SSME Engine Maintenance

From: "Al Globus"
To:
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] SSME Engine Maintenance

> While the shuttle has serious problems, it does work. Abandoning a
> working system before the replacement is operational is very dangerous.
> For example, the Saturn V was abandoned before the shuttle was available
> because the (partially) reusable shuttle was going to be cheaper and
> safer. In the event, the shuttle is a lot more expensive (about a
> factor of 5 per kg to orbit) and has a failure rate of 1%, while the
> Saturn never suffered loss of crew (although there were not that many
> flights). Also, the Saturn launched the Skylab space station, which was
> not that much smaller than the ISS, in a single launch. The shuttle
> requires dozens of launches to bring the ISS to three crew members --
> the same size as the Skylab crew.
(...)

I think that this question has been formulated again and again but,
anyway... Wouldn't it be better for NASA to simply resurrect the Saturn V as
a replacement for the Shuttle, instead of spending huge amounts in R&D for a
brand new partially or fully reusable launcher? What is the politics and
economics that prevents them from doing that?

Lucio Coelho