[SPAM] Re: [extropy-chat] Fly Me to the Moon

[Neil Halelamien]

On 6/6/05, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> > bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Charlie Stross
> ...
> >
> > This is still quite cheap when you compare to Saturn Vs in full-up
> > Apollo moon landing configuration, which cost $350-400M per moon launch
> > and had a very similar mass to LEO; that was £350-400M in *1968*
> > dollars, so call it $2-3Bn in todays money...
> > -- Charlie
> 
> 
> LM PLAN EVOLVES ATLAS TO SATURN V-CLASS PERFORMANCE: Lockheed Martin has
> mapped out an evolutionary development plan for its Atlas launch vehicle
> that would steadily increase performance to ultimately exceed that of the
> Apollo program's Saturn V, a company official said. Just as today's Atlas V
> has its roots in the Atlas ICBM of the 1950s, the "future Atlas evolution"
> will proceed in a logical manner, with each new phase providing simple and
> reliable vehicles, according to George Sowers of Lockheed Martin Space
> Systems. There have been 76 successful Atlas launches in a row. The last
> Atlas failure was in 1993. The new Atlas plan is in response to President
> Bush's January 2004 space exploration vision, which will require highly
> capable space transportation systems for such demanding missions as human
> flights to the moon and Mars. But one major tenet of the plan is prosaic -
> ensuring an ability to capture the low end of the market. The plan stresses
> creation of a family of launch vehicles for all customers, and building the
> family from a set of common modular elements. (Aerospace Daily & Defense
> Report)

In a recent interview Elon Musk (former PayPal CEO and head of SpaceX)
discussed some of his plans to eventually scale up his Falcon series
of rockets to Saturn V-class. He predicts he should be able to get
launch costs of less than $500 a pound at those sizes.

Of course, the first of his Falcon rockets still needs to get off the
ground. They recently had a successful hold-down firing at the launch
pad, and are planning to launch in a couple of months.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn_050528_falcon1.html

The radio interview: http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=343

SpaceX also recently signed a 2-year agreement with NASA which
"provides a framework for working with NASA on future spaceflight
needs in support of low Earth orbit space missions and other steps in
the Vision for Space Exploration": http://spacex.com/press17.php

-- Neil