Mistral said:
In '68-'69 a debate raged amongst NASA decision makers. Go with the shuttle or use a BDB approach.(Big Dumb Booster). The interview I saw in the wake of Challenger with a former design exec from NASA pointed out that a simple use of interchangeable design component or "modular" rockets could be used to place truly staggering amounts of payload in orbit to build a space station-but Nixon wanted the illusion of us "flying" into space and backed the shuttle.
That scratched an orbital launch platform to head back to the moon from. In the interview, the guy said Nasa could have been transferring over 100 tons of payload and materials for a lunar base every 3 months. And this was using modified Deltas! Ares/Orion is a half-assed attempt to follow that plan, but instead of re-usable it should be dismantled in orbit for raw materials. That saves you all of the extra systems inherent in return-reuse tasking. Then you use a simplified shuttle to lift your crews or even send them up on Russian capsules to save money. We'd be back on the Moon in 6 years and gearing up for Mars by 2020. If not sooner.
If you were to dismantle the Orion, just how do you suggest the crew gets back to Earth? The first stage of the Aries I will be recovered and reused the same way as the shuttle's solid boosters, thus won't reach orbit. The second stage won't reach orbit either, since the Orion's service module will be needed for the final speed boost to orbit. Since the service module will be needed to decelerate the Orion for reentry it won't be available for materials either.
The cargo versions of the Orion will, like the Russian Progress spacecraft, end up full of sweaty laundry, crew waste containers, empty food packaging and spent oxygen generator tanks. It's not prudent to just dump those items overboard because the station or some other spacecraft might collide with them later. The cargo version of Orion will be needed to deorbit that waste material.
The unmanned Aries V will be the vehicle for getting materials into orbit. It will still utilize two solid boosters that will be dropped into the ocean for reuse.
But let's not forget it takes
A LOT of energy to get material clear of the atmosphere and into orbit. Efforts to use composite materials light enough for Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) failed because the propellants leaked through the tank walls. Until material technology solves that leaking problem spacecraft will
NEED to be dropping tanks, and probably engines, during launch. Second stages like the shuttle's external tank, the Aries I second stage and the Aries V Lower two tanks won't be available for use in orbit.
