Message-ID: <0c4H1aW00WBwIc=04M@andrew.cmu.edu>
Precedence: junk
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 91 02:25:42 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #436

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 436

Today's Topics:
		       Re: Saturn V blueprints

Administrivia:

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

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

Date: 21 Apr 91 06:02:23 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!mvk@ucsd.edu  (Michael V. Kent)
Subject: Re: Saturn V blueprints

In article <1991Apr21.013456.25446@iti.org> aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) writes:
>About a month ago NASA gave a pitch on rebuilding the Saturn V. Their
>conclusion was that is would cost about $12 billion over eight years. Each
>vehicle would cost about $570M. Current estimates for ALS (which won't
>lift as much) are about 20% higher although operational costs for ALS are
>about half as much ($1,000/lb vs $2280/lb).
>
>However, there is reason to think these numbers are over inflated. The
>presentation was biased against Saturn alternatives favoring ALS type
>systems. For example, NASA's estimate of the cost of F-1 engines is about
>twice what Rocketdyne says it will take. If these numbers are indeed off
>by two then Saturn V's can be built for 40% the development cost of ALS,
>in a third less time, and cost about the same to operate. If we did a
>commercial procurement prices would drop far more.

My intuition tells me NASA is right on this one.  Trying to redevelop some-
thing 25 years old is going to be a nightmare.  This past fall I was involved
in a project to remanufacture some flight test equipment at McDonnell Douglas.
What a headache!  And this stuff was only seven years old.  Vendors went out
of business, old parts were no longer made, new parts were changed just enough
to push them out of spec, tools were no longer available, no one remembered
how the job was originally done exactly....well, you get the picture.  Rebuild-
ing the Saturn V will give you an old, expensive, unreliable system.  Better to
take what we've learned and start anew.

-- 
Michael Kent                                  mvk@itsgw.rpi.edu
McDonnell Douglas                             Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
St. Louis, Missouri                           Troy, New York
                               Apple II Forever!

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #436
*******************