ARES I X Test Flight

Oh, I forgot to add that much of the expense of the Shuttle is all the money and effort put into restoring its heat shield after every mission. It costs tens of millions of dollars and months to repair. It's very complicated and very hands-on and the most hated part of Shuttle missions.

The Ares won't suffer from this because its first stages don't need much restoration. It's engines are also much simpler and much cheaper, that saves on $/lb. of payload costs.

I remember people bragging about the shuttle being the most complex machine ever built and I couldn't help thinking at the time -- that's not something to brag about. Complex things break down a lot. Great engineering aspires to the simplest possible solution.

My fear's always been that there's a fundamental limit to how much energy/lift you can get from any chemical rocket. That equals the $/lb. limit for getting into orbit.

To go cheaper, you've got to leave the chem. rocket behind.

I agree. But right now aerospike technology (IMHO one of the first steps beyond chemical rockets) is still in relatively immature stages. It will probably be another decade before it's practical. Well, depending on funding. If Pres. Obama donates more funding to NASA progress can be made a lot faster. But for the time being the Ares rocket family and the DIRECT concept is the best money can buy for chemical rockets.

Since we're supposedly winding down the War in Iraq and now more Americans are against the War in Afghanistan than for that should free up a lot of funding to donate to worthwhile things like NASA. If these Wars end that will free up around $4.5 Trillion right there.

Yeah, no doubt we could do an awful lot with 4.5 trillion. We might even use a bit of it to reduce our national debt.

And that's just those wars. If we cut corporate welfare by 80% that would free up another $2 Trillion or so.

I think at this point Obama really has no excuse to cut NASA's funding. I really hope he doesn't turn out like Bush, who supported Project Constellation but only gave it 40% of the necessary funding.

Or better yet, fix the infrastructure of the US.

Agreed. E.g. Virgin Galactic uses a hybrid engine and will save a lot of money.

But they might have a good reason to use the current chemical rockets.

*Ares will be cheaper than the Shuttle, I mean.