Not to be to harsh on NASA but do you think the engineers got a little lazy with...

M

Man in the Moon

New member
...the design of ORION? which seems to have a few design cues from the Apollo program from 40 years ago.
what I'm saying is that it seems like a step backwards.......even though I don't know what forwards would be
 
I am currently the Chief Engineer for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Florida. Project Orion was initiated in order to experiment with nuclear pulse propulsion. Its design is highly efficient and it gives the spacecraft the opportunity to travel at a very high specific impulse. I do not believe that the engineers got lazy at all, they did, however, get smart, and decide that this design is the best suited for the job.
 
Think of it as an 'improved' Apollo, using modern materials and technologies.

Doubtless the 'look' is mostly superficial; the engineers will have started from scratch. However, some of the more 'visual' design issues such as optimal number of stages, ratio of stage masses, thrust/time profiles, etc. will be pretty similar. Don't forget that versions of the Atlas, Titan and Soyuz launchers from in the early days are still in use.

Perhaps like the bicycle, some basic designs are more or less 'it' and can't be much improved on.
 
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