"Conventional wisdom over the last several months has been that any human return to the Moon will not—barring an unlikely crash Chinese program—take place for a decade or more. The shuttle, obviously, is not capable of such a mission, and its successor, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), is not planned to enter service before about 2017, assuming all goes as planned. That would indicate that it will be at least that long, and perhaps longer, before humans again venture beyond low Earth orbit."
+ Read Article (The Space Review)
Posted by jburk at August 2, 2026 11:38 AM | TrackBackProblem One: The "logistics module" is vaporware right now. It hasn't been built. Interesting idea though and you wonder if you could extend it for other long-duration missions (maybe not to Mars, but how about LEO's and the Lagrange points?).
Problem Two: That "double dip" re-entry. How many "tourists" will sit through that without lots of sedatives?
;)
Posted by: FredKiesche at August 2, 2026 08:30 PMHere is an interesting link for a Manned Mars rover, http://www.newmars.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=024d88053cd015915efd42f33823d28d;act=ST;f=23;t=48;&#top
lots of details and links to the inner workings.
Posted by: Harold LaValley at August 9, 2026 08:04 AMA lunar soyuz seems doable right now since the craft weighs half what the apollo CSM did the translunar injection stage for it could easily be launched by an EELV.Heck a three core atlas V or a shuttle-c could launch the whole thing in one go including a mini lander or an extended orbital module for long term L1 or lunar orbit missions.
As for the double dip reentery there are people who accually suject themselves to abuse worse then that everyday for amusment talk to any one who flies an aerobatic sport plane it's very common for them to pull 6 to 8+ gs not just down but all sorts of weird angles.