[AR] Re: 3 no 4 no 5 legs.
- From: Edward Cree <ecree429@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:31:47 +0000
On 20/01/16 00:18, Henry Spencer wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jan 2016, Gert van Spijker wrote:
... Then re-fuel it and send it, without a payload ... on a
trans-lunar trajectory and land the center stage on the moon...
Quite apart from whether this is feasible -- haven't done the numbers,
but at first glance it seems unlikely -- SpaceX is, and has been for
some time, wary of doing anything that could embarrass its biggest
customer.
Not disagreeing, but note that Elon has pointed out multiple times that
their biggest customer only accounts for about 20% (IIRC) of their order
book. So _if_ something flashy was necessary _and_ NASA were dragging
their feet, it's _possible_ he might do it without them.
OTOH, the ideas for flashy FH demos people come up with, as cool as many
of them would be to space fans, do have a tendency to not actually be
particularly useful and worthwhile projects.
OTGH, if/when the MCT/BFR gets built, it'd be pretty difficult _not_ to
upstage NASA, even if they _do_ get to send a logo along for the ride.
On the... what do you call the fourth hand?... anything that makes the
SLS look sufficiently pointless that even Congress can see it, might
cause it to be cancelled, and if the money goes to other NASA projects
instead, NASA probably wouldn't mind that so much.
-ed
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