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Originally Posted by homealone
I think we need to develop a safe and economical orbiter (shuttle replacement), to service and expand the International Space Station, then develop a vehicle that will operate from that.
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That has to be the best way forward, however...
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Originally Posted by homealone
I totally agree with the article, that the 'heavy lifter' approach is redundant (and wasteful) technology. This, in my opinion, is 'short term-ism' that is not justified by the goal.
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That 'redundant' approach (Apollo 2.0) may just be the right thing if we're going to be having 'Space Race 2.0' - with China and Japan getting interested too, there's quite a few vying to be in space again.
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Originally Posted by homealone
A moon colony is no more than 'nice to have', at the moment, why not set our sights on the longer term project of a manned mission to Mars?
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Two possible reasons that we might 'want' that nice Moon base - to get there before the others do, and maybe to use it as a jumping off point to Mars.
The Space Station may be a great place to launch from, but it's awfully small for storage. So much easier to dump supplies on the Moon and then ferry them up to the SS as required.