Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: TITAN 4
Message-ID: <3810@phri.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jun 89 14:16:08 GMT
References: <4301.24986D0D@stjhmc.fidonet.org> <1989Jun19.192514.4696@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 30

In <1989Jun19.192514.4696@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> The Titan 4 is much smaller.  The statement remains accurate, since the 
> Saturn V no longer exists as a usable launcher.

	I am sure this is exposing my incredible naivete in the subject,
but just what the hell is so hard about building a big rocket?  You need a
motor (or several), some fuel/oxidizer tanks, some plumbing to get the
contents of the latter to the former, a stabilizer system, a big space to
put the payload in, and maybe some stap-on solid boosters.

	Now, even I know that this is a huge gross generalization of the
design of a big rocket, but I still don't see why the introduction of the
Titan-4 is such a big deal.  There is nothing in the Titan-4 that hasn't
been done before, in smaller and in larger scale.  It seems to me that the
announcement of the Titan-4 is about on the same order of interest as the
announcement of yet another 2 MIPS workstation.

	Question:  How much would it cost to build a new shuttle if you
left out all the re-entry equipment (i.e. no wings, etc) and all the life
support systems (i.e. no crew compartment) and used the space and weight
saved to boost unmanned payloads as a non-reusable launcher?  What I'm
talking about is basicly just reusing the SSMEs, ET, and SRMs as a
already-designed propulsion system.  Is it possible that this could ever
compete with an expendable in terms of cost/payload-mass-lifted?  Feel free
to tell me I'm all wet, if that is indeed the case.
-- 
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu
"The connector is the network"