Illustrations Courtesy of NASA, Boeing [inset]
Do you know, for every pound of payload headed for the lunar surface, NASA has to invest on hundreds more pounds of hardware and propellant during low Earth orbit?
Not just that! Even many a times, it is also on the launch pad!
Even NASA’s modern-day replacement for the ‘Saturn V’ - the Ares V vehicle — will be weighing more than 3500 tons prior to its launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. But, reaching the moon, it will land just 18 tons of weight.
Illustration by Transluszent.de
This obviously cost NASA billions of dollars, during each post-shuttle era launch. The rocket equation although is frustrating for the agency, the consequence - unfortunately — is inevitable.
In a bid to find ways to get more lunar payload ‘bang’ for its transport vehicle ‘buck’, Boeing has come up with, perhaps, the ‘ultimate problem solver.’
It proposed that a low Earth orbit gas station or a propellant depot — needed to refill the lunar-injection vehicle tanks - be used to fill up NASA’s new lander.
This would eventually not just help deliver dramatically more efficient payloads to the moon surface, but the gas station could also provide even more benefits than just an improved lunar payload!
Want to know more on NASA’s current mission plan on the lines of the Boeing proposal? Read here...
