Launch the ISS with just one rocket...

[CanisD]

I say we just go back to cubits...but then there's the choice between Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, etc...

[elmayerle]

I don't mean to be a JMN, but the "as built" design of the ISS in modules means that you'd have to launch the modules unjoined and do the assembly of the station in space as is done now.  They simply aren't stressed to be launched all assembled.  Then again, the power/cooling modules have to spread their solar "wings" and radiators after they're in orbit as those are way too delicate to deploy before launch.

Now this booster would definitely have reduced the number of modules used if it had been available.

[lancer]

I say we just go back to cubits...but then there's the choice between Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, etc...

EGYPTIAN.......

[Mossie]

It'd also result in less launches to get the whole kit & caboodle up their & possibly less time, but that would mainly depend on the construction process.

In the end it'd come down to cost effectiveness rather than pure weight lifting ability.  The guys at Nasa would have had to work out if it would have been cheaper to have more launches with the (semi) re-useable shuttle, or less launches with the expendable Saturn V-24(L), baring in mind thats a lot of material your abandoning to the chill depths of space each time.

[Madoc]

BC,

Thanks for bringing up the Sea Dragon.  You beat me to it.  That's one system which would've dwarfed all these others _and_ it was intended to be reusable too.  On top of that, the thing was intended to be built at _shipyards_ - no need for ultra expensive aerospace industrial clean room assembly processes.  Shipyards! Chaep, massive, huge payloads, and reusable.  Can't beat that!

And yes, with such an outsize launching capability, the ISS would look _very_ different.  There'd not be the constraint of having to fit each module into the width and length of a shuttle bay.

If y'all wanna think big, look at the late 60's concepts for manned space stations.  I recall one that was to be big enough so as to require a crew of 200 people!  And it'd be nuke powered to boot!

That the NASA of the 60's was able to think that big in the near term says much for the space euphoria of the day and also of how unlimited the space budgets seemed to be as well.

Madoc

[Archibald]

I don't mean to be a JMN, but the "as built" design of the ISS in modules means that you'd have to launch the modules unjoined and do the assembly of the station in space as is done now.  They simply aren't stressed to be launched all assembled.  Then again, the power/cooling modules have to spread their solar "wings" and radiators after they're in orbit as those are way too delicate to deploy before launch.

Now this booster would definitely have reduced the number of modules used if it had been available.

I remember reading something similar in 2001 by Albert Ducroq (a famous space enthusiast here in europe). That's sure, the ISS would have been built very differently, in a single (huge!) piece to deploy in space (just like the skylab).

Something funny with the columbus european module : the name come from Cristobal Colon, simply because the laboratory was to be launch in 1992.
Now we have such delays that the laboratory laucnh is for 2006 or 2007. 2006 meant 500 years before Cristobal Colon... death! sometimes I think this is a metaphore of what the ISS project has become along the years...    

[Ollie]

2006 meant 500 years before Cristobal Colon... death!

Colomb is not dead yet?

   

[Archibald]

  bloody english language!

AFTER






AFTER ....  

[Mossie]

Did the Russians have much on the drawing board of a similar size?  Although they never quite got the N-1 up to scratch that beast had the potential to be much larger.  I heard they were thinking of a Martian landing, what kind of monster was projected for that outing?

[rallymodeller]

The largest booster available anywhere right now is the Russian Energiya,which is about the same size as the STS's external tank. It can carry 80+ tons of cargo, and can use up to six strap-on boosters the size of the STS's SRBs. There is also a super-heavy development of Energiya on the drawing boards called "Vulkan" which is basically two Energiyas on top of one another and a projected payload capability of 200 tons.

And it has a Canadian connection! One of the board members of the company which owns Energiya is Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, who is also a part owner of PlanetSpace, Inc. -- the manufacturers of the Canadian Arrow V-2-based launch vehicle and the soon-to-come Silver Dart resuable skip-glide space plane. Dr. Kathuria is a very cool guy, and is the only person I've ever met who owned a space station (he was the chairman of MirCorp which "owned" Mir before it was deorbited).

[Archibald]

Hmm the N-1 had two rivals, the UR-700 and R-56. The three rockets represented the three rivals of the USSR space program. I mean, Yangel Korolev and Tchelomei.

The UR-700 (from Tchelomei) was an incredible rocket, with a diameter of... 18 m  
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/ur700.htm

The Energia family
http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/energia.htm
(just look at the RLA-150... 250 tons in LEO   )