NASA Proposes Demonstration of a Space-Based Fuel Depot

Rand Simberg takes a swipe at heavy lift and then fails to convince about fuel depots.

Let me elaborate. Tell me where I’m going wrong, here. We can’t get to the moon without a lander. We can’t get to the moon without a lunar insertion stage. We can get to the moon without a heavy lifter, if we’re willing to either design the stage to accept and store propellant on orbit, or put up a separate propellant depot. Given that we have finite resources, if one wanted to get to the moon as quickly as possible using those resources, and one was rational, one would want to focus on those elements that are essential to get to the moon, and put off those things that are not so. This is just basic critical path analysis.

There are a couple of problems with Rand's rant.

First, he assumes that the lander has to be developed in tandem with the heavy lifter. To be sure there are some small scale projects going on at JSC and Marshal, but a lander does not have to be ready the very second that the heavy lifter is. The SLS/Space Ship Formally Known as Orion can do flight testing to lunar orbit and the lagrange points while the lander is developed.

Second, Rand's fixation on fuel depots as a panacea flies in the face of every study done on the subject, including the Augustine Committee, that concluded that shooting fuel tanks from the Earth's surface does not buy one any savings but does assume a great deal more risk. Now, fuel from the Moon, deployed to one of the Lagrange points using a mass driver is another thing entirely. However, first one has to get to the Moon and for that one needs heavy lift.