Would the best way to retire the shuttle fleet be to do the incredible?

Question

Launch a shuttle to the moon, have it orbit, then return. Have them drop a payload into orbit, a couple of satillites that can photograph the moon in all spectrums? A second payload, a giant roving car robot that with solar panels drive around the moon sending back telemetry and imagery?

Answer 1

As has been pointed out correctly, this Can't Be Done. The Shuttle's Main Tank carries just enough fuel to make it up to a velocity of 17,500 MPH. To get out to the Moon, you have to depart Earth orbit with a velocity of 24,500 MPH. It is not possible with the Shuttle as it was built, to carry the fuel with which to do that.

To send probes to the Moon, you need to launch the probe with a rocket stage to do the Trans Lunar Injection burn into Earth orbit for starters. The Shuttle can't do that. Period.

Further, since this would be a program that would cost about a billion $, what would be your scientific *purpose* in such missions ?

There are plenty of tasks left for the Shuttle in conjunction with the ISS. If you really want to understand the history and capabilities of the Space Shuttle, read the listed book.

Answer 2

with engines firing at 110% and using all available fuel, the shuttle can just BARELY make it to the Hubble Space Telescope, 366 miles up.

the Moon is 238,000 miles.

238,000 > 366

Answer 3

I did the calculations many years ago to figure out how much fuel the Shuttle would need to go to the Moon, and it is FAR FAR more than it could carry. You would need 10 or 20 other launches to carry that much fuel up to orbit. Especially if you wanted to drop into lunar orbit rather than just do one loop around the Moon and return. The shuttle is just way too heavy. That big cargo bay and wings and tail all weigh a lot, a couple hundred thousand pounds, and every added pound of weight needs about 10 extra pounds of fuel to get it to the Moon.

Answer 4

Ridiculous, and I say that as a diehard space enthusiast.

You can't launch a shuttle to the moon.  It's not designed for it, you could never get enough fuel aboard to make the trip, and a dozen other reasons.

It would be easier to send the probes and rovers by themselves.  Which is what we're going to do.