I seriously doubt we would take rockets as a way to the moon. Something lighter and faster, more shuttlelike would do the trick.

I think from what I've read on the post links here it would be a great idea if we teamed up with the Russians, they have the booster and tooling, we have the funds and electronics to make it happen.

Sure would be nice to see an international paticipation in this endeavor.

it's allways better to unite and some times I get really pissed of because we could have been on mars for a long time ago if Russia and USA were together from the begining of the space era

As the Mars mission is some years ahead and it is likely that any base on ther moon will already be established by then, isn't it possible that any Mars spacecraft will be launched from outside of Earth's atmosphere?
This would negate the need for huge boosters.

I doubt that a Mars spacecraft wouold be wholly manufactured in space but it is possible that it might be assembled there just as the ISS was.

I agree, the USA Needs A heavy booster. I think that we will need to develope a new booster if we plan to launch a new moon Mission (or possibly a future Mars mission). All current Heavy Boosters I know of, including the Russian Engaria where design for putting payloads in orbit, not deep space.

Also, on a side note, If any of these long range/deep space mission are going to be manned in the future, we will also need a new spacecraft, because current ones lack the life support systems for such a long trip.

B.T.W.: In one of my old books on the history of space flight it talks about a concept for a superbooster called Nova that was developed during the early days of the Apollo Program. From what I've read, it was only a paper concept. But if the paper studies still exist in NASA's files, the idea could be revived and built.

Tim

[Edited on 14-1-2004 by ghost]

best way is the space elevator and build a craft in earth orbit and then go to the moon. first build automated spacetrucks which will be loaded at the top of the elevator and then bring the load to the moon
by dropping it on the moon
and go back to the elevator.it doesn;t have to be launch with rockets and the space plane can be flown by computers.

wow ...
lasers powercells electromotrors 15 years

I say start building

good find really nice

[Edited on 14-1-2004 by vorazechul]

There's no way chemical boosters are going to found or sustain a lunar colony. Maybe ORION, eh? Nuclear powered madness to land thousands of tonnes on the moon! I'm just waiting for antigrav. (Cue X-Files theme music)