[NicknamedBob]

Thanks!

My first step would be to replace the ailing Space Shuttle program with a redesigned shuttle which is quite a bit larger, and uses Gas-Cooled Nuclear Reactors to generate Rocket thrust using ordinary materials like water and carbon dioxide.

This would give single-stage to orbit capability, and would also complete the vision of quick turn-around for the shuttles.

For those concerned about re-entry danger, I would recommend not using aerobraking as the primary re-entry method.

Preserving enough reaction mass to slow the presumably empty shuttle from orbital speed, and float down from space gently, the way Space-ship One, Burt Rutan's shuttlecock flier, did, would be well worth the cost of transporting the extra reaction-mass load.

The reactors would be built to withstand even a fiery re-entry without disintegrating. After all, that was one of the concerns about Mir -- that it wouldn't burn up. We saw, unfortunately, that many pieces of a craft do survive, and they can be designed to do so.

I would prove the technology by putting together a program to land a team of explorers on the moon and returning them to Earth, within five years! (See posts above for methodology.)

(If you don't think that's a cool program, let me tell you about ice!)

[King Prout]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=nuclear+hydrogen+propulsion+florida+university+NERVA

[fanfan]

....the presumably empty shuttle....

Ummm, ....eh?

[fanfan]

LOL

Please tell me about ICE! :-)