Q's about Moon Shuttle project ? ...

[Rie]

Hello,
good to see you all again ...

Me now reside in English (or "Anglican" ... ? ... rather than Saxon or Zaxxen , ... )
non-speaking environment , so my disfluency became more shorter ... ... T T ... ...

Anyway (What ever , whatever ... ) , today is saturday but
me still involved in SOHO jobs ( me works so hard to live a g-standard life ) ...


[ Q - 1 ] Magagines like Popular Science (by LA Times) frequently says that
NASA is now in the choosing of the generation 2.XX Space Shuttles , and are those
could fly to the (International or English speeking Countries) Moon Orbit Station ?

( Please tell me the recent discussions about this project ... )


[ Q - 2 ] If the Moon Orbit Station is still on discussions , then how many Stations and
Moon Shuttles could be built in next 10~20 years within the limits of the budget & global economy ?


[ Q - 3 ] If the Moon Orbit Station is highly automatized , could the Shuttle
production number sufficed in 10~20's ?


[ Q - 4 ] Between Moon Orbit Station and Surface station , are there another
types of mooncraft must be needed or ... ?

( Me thought that Moon Shuttle launched from one of Earth Spaceports could not
land on the moon surface on the contrary of what we have seen in some movies ... )

 

[Ijuin]

The current lunar exploration architecture is derived from NASA's new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), and its surface lander, the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM). Basically, think of an Apollo spacecraft built with the newest materials and methods, only twice as big. It's missions will be similar to Apollo missions, except for three differences:

1: The manned capsule will launch separately from the lander and booster rocket stage and will dock with them in Earth orbit (Earth Orbital Rendevous).

2: The CEV/LSAM mission can land on any part of the lunar surface (Apollo was limited to landing near the lunar equator due to fuel supply).

3: The LSAM can remain on the lunar surface for one to two weeks instead of the three to four days that the Apollo lander was limited to.

The first CEV lunar missions are expected to happen in about twelve years from now.

As far as I know, there are no short-term plans for a station in lunar orbit, but in the 2020s NASA wants to build permanant four-to-twelve-man lunar surface base, probably near the lunar south pole.