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Originally Posted by Bob B.
Actually I doubt the orbital inclination will be exactly 28.5 degrees. For instance, most of the Apollo missions where launched into a parking orbit with an inclination of about 32.5 degrees. At this inclination there will be two launch windows each day separated by a little less than 4 hours. This means you'll have 60 launch opportunities in a month, which seems like plenty.
Yes, it is true the timing is critical, but I don't see the problem being any worse than launching a Shuttle, Soyuz or Progress to the International Space Station. Occasionally these launches are delayed, but usually within a few days they go off without a hitch.
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Despite the old technology, the Apollo missions was successful thanks to its single-launch architecture, also, since all the moon-hardware of each mission was in the LEM, there was no need of the same orbital inclination (the only important thing was to launch the Apollo to land the LEM in the right place of the moon).
With the very expen$$$ive VSE moon-hardware this choice will be not possible because all the hardware must be landed in one or two places of the moon (to reuse it as many times as possible).
The only orbital inclination of all launches will be probably at 28.5 degree (some suggest to move the ISS in that orbit to use it as a lunar vehicles' assembly space-port!)
With the one-and-half launch architecture NO DELAY is allowed (certainly not the GIANT delays we have seen with the Shuttles, ISS, etc.), so, 6o launch windows or (more probably) only 30 launch windows of half hour each will be very little if (like with Discovery) the CLV must be disassembled and reassembled to change the 2nd stage engine or, also, a simpler part.
The launch of the Shuttles, Soyuz and Progress can't be compared with the LSAM/CEV because they are all "SINGLE" launch vehicles and the ISS is
their "moon" ,not their "LSAM/EDS".
The
"ISS-moon" runs in orbit and the Shuttles, Soyuz and Progress may have
dozens of delays for months or years (like really happen!) because the ISS don't have an "expiration date" while the LSAM/EDS will be unusable for only 60 of the 95 days (due to moon day, travel, etc.) and, after the 95 days, it can't be never used yet, since it will have an
"expiration date" (like foods!)
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