"No US manned launch capability"

[Deimos Anomaly]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

It only has to keep them oxygenated fed and watered, and neither roasted nor frozen. For a day or two, however long it takes to get to the ISS.

With rockets such as those mentioned capable of putting 20 - 30 tons into LEO (equivelant to a couple of full size buses) this should be ridiculously easy and quick.

 

[Amaris]

Would you climb into a cheap meat canister and get rocketed into space?

 

[Arrqh]

I don't see why it would be so hard, it's not like it's rocket science or anything.

 

[SeerSGB]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

It only has to keep them oxygenated fed and watered, and neither roasted nor frozen. For a day or two, however long it takes to get to the ISS.

With rockets such as those mentioned capable of putting 20 - 30 tons into LEO (equivelant to a couple of full size buses) this should be ridiculously easy and quick.

Yeah, who needs all that safety shit anyway; astronauts, astrowimps is more like. I mean wanting to come back to their families alive and breathing...

I don't see why it would be so hard, it's not like it's rocket science or anything.

Yeah I know. It isn't like NASA has a bad track record or anything with doing things without taking all the issues into account or anything like that.

 

[RobertVA]

The vehicle would also need to retain its capabilities while docked at the ISS in standby mode for months.

Along with what the OP said, retty much what Orion was supposed to be. Orion is supposed to be, to a great extent, an enlarged version of the successful Apollo command module. The competing designs apparently have funding sources that permit less publicity about their specifics and test programs.

 

[Mr Awe]

Really, everyone knows how exceedingly simple space travel is. Sheesh!

 

[John Picard]

Um, there's already one in service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(spacecraft)

 

[SeerSGB]

I love the shuttle program, but NASA pissed a lot of money away on a program that really didn't do much more than what was being done or could be done with Crew modules atop of the firecrackers.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

It only has to keep them oxygenated fed and watered, and neither roasted nor frozen. For a day or two, however long it takes to get to the ISS.

With rockets such as those mentioned capable of putting 20 - 30 tons into LEO (equivelant to a couple of full size buses) this should be ridiculously easy and quick.

Manned spacecraft that take years or even decades of planning, construction, and refinement to work properly are still dangerous enough that they have non-fatal and fatal accidents at rates far exceeding the next most dangerous form of transportation, and your solution is to essentially strap a hastily jury-rigged tin can with SCUBA gear to the top of a massive rocket as a replacement?

 

[John Picard]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

It only has to keep them oxygenated fed and watered, and neither roasted nor frozen. For a day or two, however long it takes to get to the ISS.

With rockets such as those mentioned capable of putting 20 - 30 tons into LEO (equivelant to a couple of full size buses) this should be ridiculously easy and quick.

Manned spacecraft that take years or even decades of planning, construction, and refinement to work properly are still dangerous enough that they have non-fatal and fatal accidents at rates far exceeding the next most dangerous form of transportation, and your solution is to essentially strap a hastily jury-rigged tin can with SCUBA gear to the top of a massive rocket as a replacement?

The A-Team could do it. Don't be such a doubter. Hell, remember the recent discussion of the show Salvage 1?

 

[SeerSGB]

Lets just make Ray Stevens the head of NASA.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Yeah, but the A-Team also had the magical power to shoot machine guns and fire off explosives everywhere without killing anyone.

If the spacecraft could be made of whatever the hell they made that Jeep in the opening credits out of that allowed the bad guys to crawl out unhurt after blowing up and doing a barrel-roll through the air, I'm sure it would be perfectly safe.

 

[knine]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

It only has to keep them oxygenated fed and watered, and neither roasted nor frozen. For a day or two, however long it takes to get to the ISS.

With rockets such as those mentioned capable of putting 20 - 30 tons into LEO (equivelant to a couple of full size buses) this should be ridiculously easy and quick.

If only it could be that easy. There is a lot that goes into the process to make sure they can make it into orbit without blowing themselves up and back without frying or crashing into the ground.

Although, I would wager a guess that if there was not so much bureaucracy involved in the system, it would probably go a lot faster.

 

[Squiggy]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

Because sane people don't want to fly that way.

 

[SeerSGB]

OK can someone explain to me why it is not possible, over the next few months to a year, to design and throw together a cheap and cheerful meat-cannister to go on top of existing rockets like Atlas V or Delta IV?

Because sane people don't want to fly that way.

Come on, lets let American Airlines run our space program.

 

[gturner]

They could just go with the Big Gemini proposal from 1969.

 

[SeerSGB]

They could just go with the Big Gemini proposal from 1969.

Well isn't that what Constellation/Orion are pretty much?

 

[gturner]

Except for the cost and delays.

 

[SeerSGB]

Except for the cost and delays.

Which would be incurred by ANY program, much less one that's new/revised technology development. We're not going to start toss astronauts up there with 1960s techology

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If not for the prohibition against nuclear power in space, we might be walking on Mars right now. If we had had all this time to iron out the problems inherent in the design, Project Orion could get us there.