Boeings concept for "CEV"....

[Dr Mordrid]

CEV = Crew Exploration Vehicle

NASA's upcoming lunar/planetary manned vehicle.



Presumably it'll use some variation of the inflatable HABLAB for crew quarters and the VASIMR plasma engine.

Dr. Mordrid

[cjolley]

for some reason I now have the Blue Danube Waltz running through my mind....
chuck

[Jon P. Inghram]

For some reason when I read "CEV" I thought "Crew Expendable Vehicle."

[Brian R.]

I bet it ends up orbiting aimlessly around Jupiter...

[KvHagedorn]

heh.. I was about to say "Where's the big beachball on the front?"

Instead there's a big white hole saw with a cork sticking out of it.

[Dr Mordrid]

The 'beachball" is an inflatable crew quarters made of, among other things, Kevlar. These and other such devices have been tested in giant vacuum chambers for some time and have a great future for lightweight space habitats, crew cabins for LEM-style landers, lunar and Mars habitats etc.

Light weight = higher performance for a given specific impule engine etc.

Inflatables is one of the "next big things" in space tech. Combined with new power plants like ion and VASIMR drive could well make for some big advances in short order.

The CEV I posted above is the Enhanced version for planetary exploration. There is actually a whole CEV system proposed by Boeing that takes a modular approach; just adding modules according to the mission. One combination would be for lunar missions and another for planetary (Mars).

Other modules are for control functions (looks a lot like Apollo but larger), and others are long term habitats and inflatable space stations. One big advantage to this method is the inclusion of a Mercury/Gemini/Apollow style escape system for launches. Take a look;

http://boeingmedia.com/images/search.cfm?product_id=1525

With the modular approach you get one other huge advantage: since the power plant is also just another module you can use upper stage engines from a booster for the near term and near Earth missions and just plug in other techs (VASIMR, ion etc.) as they come on line for longer missions. Cool.

Dr. Mordrid