Huh

[james_davis_nicoll]

Somehow in discussions of the Orion spacecraft [1] I completely overlooked the Block II and Block III CEVs. I am skeptical that they will be developed but still, it's somewhat ballsy to think about going to Mars in what amounts to a souped up Apollo.

[added later]

1: Not the nuclear-bomb driven Orion.

Comments

[martin-wisse.livejournal.com]

For a moment I thought you were talking about old bang-bang.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Crap, I forgot the foot note.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

That design, we may yet need for "outside the asteroid belt" operations, I'd bet.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer something that could make a few round-trip runs myself, but you're right. There's a certain degree of admiration for the ambition of trying to adapt that sort of hardware, however updated for the times.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

They might also propose a hab module for the Mars trip like the one in Stephen Baxter's "Voyage."

[seawasp]

I think that if they CALL it Orion they should MAKE it Orion. THAT would be a space program. We could have the Mythbusters run it.

[wdstarr.livejournal.com]

Adam Savage with nukes. You may have discovered another possible solution to the Fermi Paradox.

[seawasp]

"Well THERE'S your problem!"

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

One would hope that they'd give the keys to Jaime Hyneman. No offense, Adam, but Jaime's lost fewer eyebrows and less hearing.

-- Steve's wondering if anyone from Apollo Applications is involved in this Orion Block II and III planning.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Insurance wouldn't allow it. Tori would have to ride the scale model nuclear powered spaceship. Adam can stay behind and throw a hissy fit.

Hopefully they will have Grant on the build. I just watched one of the serious "bad math" episodes last night. "Kid with Party Balloons" where they undercalculated the number of balloons needed by 50%, and "Ping-Pong salvage" where they undercalculated number of balls by almost 60%.