Bruce
You complain that a crew of three will only barely be able to keep the ISS operating... so finish the habitation module and have a crew of six, or two modules and have a crew of nine. Italy has offered to build the module in return for NASA launching an Italian life sciences laboratory, so all it'll cost NASA is the launches of these modules. If NASA can't afford to finish the X-38 ACRV, buy more Soyuz spacecraft to serve as lifeboats. Hell, if it meant that ESA and NASDA were able to station their own people aboard on a full time basis to run their own laboratories they'd probably but the transports. The worst thing will be to pay the cost of providing the ISS as an infrastructure for science, then inhibit the crew so that only a trivial amount of science can be done... It is all very well to argue that it cost more than initially estimated, but so has every space project since the dawn of the Space Age - just look at the Europan mission, which has gone from being an FBC mission to a billion-dollar ticket. And its all very well to argue that the ISS should have been designed in a few largr units to ride a couple of big dumb boosters rather than itty-bitty-wise for the Shuttle, but we have to work with what we've got. Now that the damned thing is coming along, use it! You may not think much of microgravity research but that's your view, a fluid specialist probably couldn't give a damn about a mission to Europa - even though it has the largest ocean in the solar system. Quit moaning. dmh == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
