Calger459 says:

I think the primary problem (if it even is a problem) with rocketry is that for *effective* spaceflight you truly need a marriage between form and function, with function predominate. It’s more important that your crew capsule works reliably than look pretty. The shuttle looks amazing, but its size, form and weight really restrict it to LOE. I can only imagine that in theory the shuttle could fly to the moon, but only if it could carry enough fuel, and it’s simply too heavy for that. Physics are a real factor as long as we’re only using chemical rockets to get around.

The public would LOVE a sexy ship like out of Star Trek, but can you picture launching the Enterprise-D or bringing it down through re-entry? They always conveniently skip that part in the show when the little boxy Federation shuttles go through the atmosphere down to the surface of a planet and come back up again via their magic non-booster/stage-requiring fuel. There’s nothing wrong for wanting or wishing for that kind of future, but I think until we innovate a good alternative to chemical fuels (like nuclear engines) the Apollo-era capsule shape is the best way to return to the Moon. Obviously a capsule that size won’t be good for going to Mars, so I expect we’ll have a different sort of ship for that. Really, I think if we want a sci-fi looking sexy spaceship, it needs to be built out in space and not have the restrictions that come with launching and landing through an atmosphere. Works for Star Trek, we should give it a try!…provide we can work out the fuel issue.

All that of course is connected to poor NASA’s choked budget; when you have to save money no matter what, it simply makes sense to go with what you already know. I think NASA *should* get an exception for using budget for marketing and wider outreach and education. Of any government agency, they need it the most to keep the public interested. There are people like my mom who grew up in the Apollo era and who remembers where she was when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but even so she feels spending time and money returning to the moon and going to Mars is a waste and that we should use those resources to help people on Earth. She doesn’t understand how and why that endeavor is useful, and that truly is a failure of NASA to communicate. Apollo was helped greatly by the giant political competition between the US and the Soviet Union; the space program was an integral part of our nation’s future. NASA needs to find that again, in a way that doesn’t involve war or the threat of one.

Alejandro says:

Hello, well, again rockets to reach the moon… mmm, that is sad!!!! in more than 40 years that is the best we got???, why if NASA announces a global contest like the “google x prize 1.0″ for a new design of space craft that can take us back to the moon with more style!!!