What God would that be?

you’ve really lost it.

You could be right. I do seemed to have lost sight of America’s future in the morass of greed, theft, incompetence and violence it has become today.

Problem solved.

And thus America’s disposable and unsustainable way of life is non-negotiably preserved!

We can have cost-sharing with DoD because of the Delta-IV. Overall it will cost less than switching back to the RS-25, even the disposable version, the RS-25A.

If we do those 3 things we will have a disposable engine that is superior to the SSME in isp and thrust at 1/3 the cost. Human rate it and you can fly Orion on the Delta-IV, Ares-V or the Jupiter-120/232.

And it will make Pad Rat happy because it’s an American engine.
Problem solved.

We aren’t in the 50s and 60s, we are very nearly into the second decade of the 21st century, where the entire American system of business and governance is frayed almost to the point of total collapse, held together right now by a very thin thread of low gas prices, and the prospect of unlimited artificial funding in the form of goverment bailout of failed governemnt and business institution via the mere printing of paper money. The US military knows this, the Obama transition team knows this, the Obama administration knows this, and the very few critical thinkers left in the United States knows it. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you.

Down selecting isn’t in the cards for the very simple reason that we are in a financial hole so deep, that even taxes won’t be able to dig us out of it.

We need breakthroughs in the area of space and physics to save us now.
It isn’t very hard to see if you had the foresight to foretell our current state. Most Americans didn’t have that foresight, being blinded by bullshit and propaganda from the military, corporations, your government and it’s institutions, and the Christian right – a continual barrage of indoctrination rivaled only by that of certain third world fascist and military dictatorships.

Turn on the TV. If you can’t see the extent of it, you are apathetically blind.

I think if you read some history back in the late 50’s and 60’s you’ll see that the main motivation to get to the moon had a bit to do with getting there first. What about Sputnik? Yuri Gagarin? Was this about one Earth? Heck, no. Now, putting hardware into space is big business. Much of it is for national defense. A lot of it is about making money. This money pays people’s salaries. These salaries pay taxes. Tell the American people that their taxes are going for a one Earth mind set.

That would be a business issue with ULA and their principles, and not a government issue in any way.

If Ares 5 continues on with RS-68, mutual benefits may be in store.

It won’t continue with the RS-68. Hydrogen vehicles scale better with larger tanks, but we’ve already got vehicles flying the RS-68, so it’s a no go. The problem with the Ares V is that the RS-68 is not sufficiently efficient to deliver the core stage to orbit, and thus is an unsustainable launch vehicle architecture in the long run. The SSME does not suffer from those problems, any booster assisted SSME powered launch vehicle EASILY has enough performance margins to deliver the core stage to orbit, where the engines may be recovered for reuse, and the tankage retrofitted into large orbiting spaceports, with plenty of margin available for excess payload.

The problem with these architectures still remains the foam insulation.

Until NASA is willing to do some actual real ‘rocket science’, rather than incompetent engineering from incompetent political specifications derived from incompetent political machinations, these problems will remain.

Do we want to be in front or second place or worse?

There is no first, second or third place in space, there is only one Earth.

I’d like to hear your comments on no Atlas V Heavy being available or tested and how this would play into an Ares 1 replacement. Is the talk of using an Atlas V Heavy to replace Ares 1?

SSME, D4 may be many of the things you decribed but it was built to spec….just like Uncle Sam ordered. You forgot to say it’s inexpensive too. RS-68 upgrades may be a viable alternative. If Ares 5 continues on with RS-68, mutual benefits may be in store.

I’m all for one big happy joint world effort in space, but, we must protect our industry. Do we want to be in front or second place or worse?

Nothing. The Delta IV Heavy and Medium are both fine vehicles. The RS-68 has a few issues, the ablative nozzle interjects some uneven burning, the engine is very heavy, has less than optima Isp and T/W and is a helium hog, besides the obvious hydrogen startup flare. But overall, the Heavy should be able to loft an Orion class mega capsule and the Medium is very capable.

100% American made. Why does ULA offer up Atlas V so fast?

Because it is different, and in some respect, better. Those Russian engines are the top of their class in hydrocarbon propulsion, US Americans would be well advised to at least try to reproduce them, and much can and has been learned by simply flying them. The metallurgy is nearly irreproducible and requires advancement of our state of the art at fundamental levels.

These launch vehicles have their pros and cons, but the spread of capabilities is continuous across launch vehicle architectural niches, especially considering the clustered approach with the Merlin 1C.

The best thing we could do is spend the money to continue manufacturing SSMEs and upgrading them with channel wall nozzles and hydrostatic bearings, finish development of the RL-60 for both EELVs even the COTS vehicles, and even … ahem, continue development of the improved J2X for deep space missions. Propulsion is everything right now, launch vehicles will evolve in the traditional Frankenstein mix and match manner as usual.

And yes, we should continue with the program to reproduce both Russian hydrocarbon engine metallurgy and manufacture, and their channel wall nozzle technology. They want money, we are printing it in great quantities.

Ditto for the Soyuz and Progresses. It’s another space race, remember?

A cooperative international space race, with the goal of good will among nations as we move out into space and investigate and share its weirdness.