NASA Receives Crew Exploration Vehicle Proposals

Space.com ^

[JeffersonRepublic.com]

McDonnell Douglas got screwed when NASA destoryed the Delta Clipper.



Lockheed Martin got screwed when NASA ask them to fund $300 million dollars of the X-33, only to annouce that Lockheed wouldn't get the contract for the venturestar.




I don't think it's very smart for these corporations to try to do business with NASA - it's bad for their shareholders.

[D Rider]

My Personal choice:

[Kenny Bunkport]

Lockheed-Martin's proposal:

I don't quite see how this things lands on the Moon.

[Kenny Bunkport]

My personal choice:

[Robe]

INSIDE THE CREW MODULE
1 Nitrous-oxide mono-propulsion system
2 Float bags
3 Micro-Meteoroid and Orbital Debris protection shield
4 Liquid oxygen long-term storage
5 Supersonic drogue chutes
6 Fuel cell

Read More HERE

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1395864/posts

[hopespringseternal]

Given the cost of crossrange and lifting reentry, anyone proposing it should be shot in the public interest. It is the space launch equivalent of a sweaty guy in an overcoat on a summer day shouting, "Allahu akbar!"

[Killborn]

My personal choice:

[Frank_Discussion]

What a kluge! Lockmart really is losing it.

[Frank_Discussion]

I'll tell you right now, you've lost me.

[Kenny Bunkport]

What a kluge!

You got that right. Looks like it's made of surplus space vehicle parts from the last 30 years.

[Frank_Discussion]

Yeah... Who'd they hire to design their entry, Andy Griffith?

They had, what, a YEAR, to come up with something? And THIS is it? So, SO Sad.

[Kenny Bunkport]

The USAF has screwed-over some aerospace companies as well --

The X-20 Dyna-Soar

[Frank_Discussion]

THAT looks better that the current Lockheed proposal. repeat:

SO Sad...

[Kenny Bunkport]

And we're talking here of a concept (the X-20) that is over 40 years old. They trotted out this idea in 1962; had it gone through as originally envisioned, it would have pre-dated the Space Shuttle by 15 years.

[Frank_Discussion]

Yeah, that's true, but the baseline X-20 wasn't a cargo carrier, IIRC. But imagine what could have been built from it. We'd need no CEV, we'd have it.

[demlosers]

Is Boeing going to put forth a CEV proposal?

[Paul_Denton]

My choice.

[Kenny Bunkport]

Either one. Let's roll.

[Kenny Bunkport]

Precisely. The history of the US space program is littered with oppotunities not taken, and we end up having to reinvent concepts that are 40 years old.

[Frank_Discussion]

The opportunity was not taken because the PTB felt that the Shuttle concept would please the maximum number of users. Of course, that's somewhat true, but it does less than it was meant to, while X-20 died on the vine.

Reality sucks at times.