Quote:
Originally Posted by cjameshuff
Not quite. My answer was that if it's at all possible, it'd be both extremely difficult and pointless. It is not at all certain that it's possible, even with the cargo bay full of fuel tanks, external fuel tanks bolted on, special tanks for long-term fuel storage, and new engines that can be ignited in orbit, but these things are the minimum of what would be needed, and the mission would essentially be crippled by the need to haul a mostly useless Shuttle along to the moon.
Basically, if it's not impossible, by using the Shuttle for this purpose you only avoid doing the things that are relatively easy to do, and you still have to do all the hard things, which are just made harder by the fact you're trying to do them with the Shuttle.
|
Understood. I have no intention of making claims that the Shuttle should have been flying to the Moon for the last 3 decades. I understand that it is pointless, inefficient, and difficult, if not near unattainable to try to accomplish that task. Again it was nothing more than a hypothetical. I just feel that there are very few "impossibles" in this universe, and greatly appreciate professional wisdom on the subject.
