Message-ID: <gaZgab600VcJ8C204V@andrew.cmu.edu>
Precedence: junk
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Sun,  8 Jul 1990 01:50:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #30

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 12 : Issue 30

Today's Topics:
			man-rated expendables

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  space+@andrew.cmu.edu.  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
  should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to
			 tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 Jul 90 23:23:16 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@ucsd.edu  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: man-rated expendables

In article <900706.145119.EDT.JEFF@UTCVM> JEFF@UTCVM.BITNET (Jeffrey R Kell) writes:
>Are there any man-rated expendibles left (at least the manned configurations)?

Only the Soyuz booster. :-)  It's literally the only man-rated expendable
in the world, if you discount Energia as not fully man-rated yet.

The Saturns are gone, alas.  The man-rated Atlas and Titan variants had
assorted minor modifications, mostly things like more redundant electronics,
that the unmanned versions lack.  It would probably not be terribly hard
to re-man-rate one of the Titans, but it would require a deliberate effort.
(Ditto for Atlas, but its payload is pretty small, so Titan would be a
better bet.)

>For that matter, what will we do for a capsule?  Buy a Soyuz? ...

That's about the size of it.  You might perhaps be able to man-rate one
of the spy-satellite film-return capsules, although I think the late-model
ones are too small for this purpose, and I'm not sure they're still in
production.

A couple of years ago, British Aerospace proposed a man-rated capsule
(which could also fly unmanned) for Ariane, as a halfway step towards
Hermes and a useful gadget in its own right.  The design looked good.
Nobody was willing to spend any money on it, alas.
-- 
"Either NFS must be scrapped or NFS    | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
must be changed."  -John K. Ousterhout |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V12 #30
*******************