Quote:
Originally Posted by TrevorW
It amazes me that they are taking so long to get back to the moon 50 years later with better technology, did NASA forget things  |
My thoughts…….,
The Saturn 5 was a ridiculously expensive expendable launch system to get humans to the moon within 10 years. Totally government funded endeavour ( NASA )
Starship will eventually be a totally reusable launch system to get humans to Moon , Mars and beyond. It might take until 2035/2040 to get humans to Mars ( if this is at all possible) Private company using its own funds irrespective of whether NASA is one of its customers.
The Apollo CSM with LM in tow carrying 3 astronauts to moon and the Starship with possibly up to 100 astronauts to Moon , Mars and beyond is like comparing an E scooter to a B double truck.
Thrust of Saturn 5 at launch around 7.5 million pounds
Thrust of Starship Booster at launch in its final version 3 configuration around 21 million pounds of thrust
The Saturn 5 was affectionately called the old man’s rocket as it was so inefficient and slow off the pad and slow to get to LEO consuming ridiculous mind boggling amounts of fuel.
Starship in comparison with its efficiency and thrust to weight ratio is bigger more powerful and orders of magnitude cheaper to get to LEO. Musk is talking about a cost per Starship launch of only $2 million dollars once the system is fully reusable.
The technology required today used by Space X in regard to total re usability is new technology. The goals are new goals and the launch vehicle and hardware is new and unproven. Blowing up rockets is all
part of their iterative approach to design development and qualification testing.
Why haven’t we been back to the Moon in 50 years ?
I suppose we’ve been there 6 times already and no one in private industry from 1975 to 2001 ( until Mr Musk arrived on the scene ) had the vision and money to invest in such a monumental endeavour and leap forward for humanity.
Governments ( NASA ) these days are reticent to the risks of human space travel, the days of Apollo are well and truly over.
It’s a new vision for a new frontier with so many unknowns to be resolved along the way.
I hope I’m still around to see at least an unmanned Starship orbit Mars and return to Earth.
Who knows ?
Martin