This is my escape, but I'm not going anywhere

7.7.24:

That last post was about escape from modern life, and what some people do to make their escape.

Perhaps I've got my own kind of escape. An escape meaning something that makes you feel better. The cold, cruel world can get you in a bad way. You need an escape. Some folks use drugs. Others use alcohol. There may be many other ways that I can't even think of at the moment. But mine is to study things. Particularly things that may solve problems.

Of course, I'm in no position to solve any problems this way. I don't build rockets or nuke plants. Shoot, I can't even build my desert home out west on my land.

But I can think about it. It gives me something to do. Better than soaking your brain with drugs and alcohol. Or soaking my head in a bucket of ice water.

Along those lines, I've been writing about the Angry Astronaut's post about Artemis/SpaceX issues. There may be a solution that could work. It would involve making the Booster and the Starship expendable. It would involve making a third stage (like Apollo's S-IVB) that would be carried along as cargo inside the Starship.

SpaceX's contract may call for 100 tons and 4 astronauts on the moon. The solution is to use 3, or maybe 4 launches to do the job. Two launches of a cargo only mission to deliver 50 tons to the lunar surface. A total of 100 tons of cargo can be delivered, if you count the astronauts and their life support needs. All of the launches would require expendable rockets.

If refueling is desired, this mission profile won't be demonstrating it. The third launch will be like the first two cargo missions, but it will deliver the landing bird to the Gateway. If the cargo bird can deliver 50 tons to the lunar surface, I figure it can deliver a habitat plus all the necessary fuel for a roundtrip from Gateway to the lunar surface and back. This and the two cargo missions would fulfill NASA's requirements.

The habitat must be far smaller than one envisioned at present. Therefore, I agree with Angry that the current mission profile is not likely to be accomplished in any useful timeframe, maybe never.

I've already written prior to this that I thought the idea of using Starship for a Mars mission will not work. The refueling part will have to involve offworld sources for propellant. A thousand Starships from Earth is not practical. An offworld source of propellant will make refueling practical, fewer Earth launches required. In addition a much larger vehicle must also be constructed to get his million immigrants situated on Mars. Starship cannot do this task by itself. That's too many issues for this one ship to resolve.

7.8.24:

Starship SuperJumbo Expendable Mode Calculations...