Rick
06-22-2008, 11:56 AM
Orlando Sentinel-
CAPE CANAVERAL - It's the rocket NASA won't talk about -- but proponents insist it could change everything. If built, they say, it could get America back on the moon faster and cheaper than anything NASA is designing -- and save thousands of jobs in Florida.
It's called Direct 2.0, or the Jupiter 120 rocket. The simplicity of its design, and the possibility that it could shave years off a projected five-year gap in U.S. human spaceflight once the shuttle retires in 2010, is gaining Direct a growing following among engineers and space enthusiasts -- including NASA workers who are secretly helping the project on their own time. Adherents say it could fly by 2013 for less than the projected cost of NASA's Ares rocket.
Indeed, an unfinished internal NASA study -- shut down and disowned by the agency last fall -- showed Direct 2.0 would outperform Ares, which the agency is designing for its Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon. The initial results showed Direct 2.0 was superior in cost, overall performance and work-force retention -- a big issue for Florida.
A presentation last month in Washington by Stephen Metschan, CEO of TeamVision Corp., a software-design company promoting the Direct concept, excited Brevard County space advocates seeking to mitigate the layoffs of thousands of workers at Kennedy Space Center when the shuttles are mothballed.
Read More... (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-rocket2208jun22,0,6150021.story?track=rss)
CAPE CANAVERAL - It's the rocket NASA won't talk about -- but proponents insist it could change everything. If built, they say, it could get America back on the moon faster and cheaper than anything NASA is designing -- and save thousands of jobs in Florida.
It's called Direct 2.0, or the Jupiter 120 rocket. The simplicity of its design, and the possibility that it could shave years off a projected five-year gap in U.S. human spaceflight once the shuttle retires in 2010, is gaining Direct a growing following among engineers and space enthusiasts -- including NASA workers who are secretly helping the project on their own time. Adherents say it could fly by 2013 for less than the projected cost of NASA's Ares rocket.
Indeed, an unfinished internal NASA study -- shut down and disowned by the agency last fall -- showed Direct 2.0 would outperform Ares, which the agency is designing for its Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon. The initial results showed Direct 2.0 was superior in cost, overall performance and work-force retention -- a big issue for Florida.
A presentation last month in Washington by Stephen Metschan, CEO of TeamVision Corp., a software-design company promoting the Direct concept, excited Brevard County space advocates seeking to mitigate the layoffs of thousands of workers at Kennedy Space Center when the shuttles are mothballed.
Read More... (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-rocket2208jun22,0,6150021.story?track=rss)