Monday, March 13, 2006
Everything old will be new again
NASA's new ship
NASA is also building a new vehicle -- but this flying machine is meant to return to an old stomping ground. The space agency has set its sights once again on visiting the moon.
The centerpiece of the flying machine will be the Crew Exploration Vehicle, a descendant of the Apollo command module with a few significant differences. For one thing, it will be bigger, able to carry four astronauts comfortably and six a bit more snugly --twice the load of the three-man Apollos.
It will be equipped with solar panels, a sensible addition in a sun-drenched place like the inner solar system -- and one that reduces the demands on fuel cells and batteries.
On its return to Earth, it will also be able to either splash down in the water as the Apollos did or thump down under a parachute on dry desert.
Hmm ... sounds more or less exactly like the the Apollo module to me. Yeah, it has the requisite upgrades, but ... I don't know. Kind of makes you think that the whole shuttle thing was a 20 year waste of time.|
