It's a 16 year project, 31 launches, 88 billion dollar project that will establish a permanent presence in space. It will enable routine access to cis-lunar space without having to launch from the deep gravity well of Earth. This will make future missions much more affordable. Here's a way of thinking of it: it is an interstate highway system to the solar system. It is an infrastructure project in space.
People may recoil at the cost, but remember that it is for a 16 year project. Money will have to be found of course. It may well to remember that the ISS takes up about 3 billion a year, if I am not mistaken. That is about halfway there, but you will have to wait until 2020 to start. That's the year that the ISS program is scheduled to end.
It came to my attention that the shuttle derived system takes up 2 billion a year even if there are no launches. Not only that, but it will take some redesign work to make it off the launch pad. This entails further costs.
Now, what if we used the shuttle derived system to launch those ET's and terminate this system from that point on? You would need only 6 launches ( or less) to put up the tanks. Subsequent missions can be accomplished without this launcher. It can then be retired and the 2 billion can be saved. By the end of the decade, you will have your 5 billion a year and you can start to work on the Moon base.
Well, you don't quite have enough money yet, but if you stretch the program out a few more years, then that will bring it into line.
The ET's can be your deep space platform to go to Mars. It can be refurbed over a long term period that will give you plenty of time to be ready when the Moonbase is operational. When the Moonbase is operational, you will begin work on your Mars and deep space capabilities. This time frame will be around 2040. This is about the time frame the Augustine commission was setting for a Mars mission. So, you are still on schedule.
The ET's will provide plenty of shielding and living space for the crew for its 2 year mission to Mars. It can be spun up in order provide Martian artificial g, so that the crew won't have to recover from weightlessness when they get back from their mission. The spaciousness of the ET's will give the crew plenty of room to operate in.
I'm sure that that will be a welcome addition as opposed to be cramped up in tight spaces for 2 years.
One other thought occurred to me. If the ISS is to end in 2020, why not try to recycle those components along with the ET's? It seems a waste to send the ISS to a fiery death into a reentry in the Earth's atmosphere. With all the room on the ET's, the space station just might fit inside. It will cost money to deorbit the ISS. Why not use that money to recycle it instead?
Update:
I just now recalled that NASA is spending a lot of money to study global warming. That needs to stop. But I am sure that these people will fight that, so here is what I propose in its place. Set up this Moonbase and Deep Space Station, and then you will have the capability to transition out of fossil fuels into solar power from space. Instead of wasting money on studies, actually build something of value. If the money spent on global warming studies is transferred out and spent on this, it will free up the money to accelerate this program and bring a real solution to at least one problem: energy. We need energy.
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