Dean's World

Maybe it's just me, but why does the space shuttle seem more delicate than a 747? Yes I know the space shuttle glides without engine power during the landing process and needs perfect conditions but...

It just seems that we should be building a more robust space vehicle. Can't we build something that re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and powers its way to a landing? Can we build something that doesn't need thermal blankets (I love mine) in order to take the heat? Where's that grand ol' American ingenuity?

For a bracing look at the real flaws of the space shuttle from day one, I've never found anything better than this:

Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty.

It was first published in 1980, before the first shuttle launch, and it's hard to find anything about it that didn't turn out to be completely correct. If anything, it underestimated what a boondoggle the space shuttle has been.

The space shuttle has proven much less economical, much less reliable, and much more dangerous than any of the launch systems it replaced. And has proven to be incapable of most of the things it was supposed to be able to do.

It may be hard to admit all that while being impressed with watching it take off and land, but that's the hard truth.

We need to scrap these obsolete death traps. We can have much better, for much cheaper. It only requires the will.

Dave Adds: For something truly revolutionary, check out Tom Ligon's ISDC presentation on how a Polywell fusion drive could allow us to start colonizing the solar system in our lifetimes. A permanent moonbase for $12B, a Mars base for $15B!