Hi everyone,

I have just been working on some updates for aerospaceguide.net and
my other site dialashop.com and I recieved this interesting email via
the aerospaceguide.net on the moon and I thought I would share it
with you all. I also replied to Simon's message below. By the way if
you need to shop for Xmas please use the ASG Space Shop section

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spaceshop/index.html

I also updated the space books section and added a new space books
releases page. If you see any great books add a message here. There's
a great book there on Dyna-Soar.

http://aerospaceguide.net/spacebook/index.html

or Dialashop.com - Shoping Guide

http://www.dialashop.com/index.html

On the topic of returing to the moon I read in an aerospace magazine
that President George Bush might mention in late December of a return
to the moon. If I find out anymore info I will mention it in the ASG
Newsletter section.

"I must admit that NASA has made many remarkable advances in space
exploration, at least almost 40 years ago!. I hate to say this but
the enthusiasm of the government, and NASA is completely gone. We
will never see the day that a man puts a colony on the moon, or even
physically sees Mars. We will forever be stranded to this rock devoid
of the knowledge and expeiriances that space has to offer, for this I
am ashamed and let down. If we do not put man any further than the
moon, (walking only) then we have wasted decades of very smart men,
and many billions of dollars. Its amazing, we can go to war so fast
and hundreds will die, but the men that venture into orbit (because
they are not allowed to go further) and know that they may die, are
more protected than our soldiers. This is very wrong. The human race
cannot go forward without sacrifice and our astronauts feel the same
way or they would not do it. Just thought I would write to see what
you think about this. I think it is very disheartening."

"I came across your group while searching for info about spaceplanes."

Great! I plan to cover the Orbital Space Plane in the future. At the
moment the debate is should NASA go for a space plane or capsule?
Good question! I prefer space plane like the HL-20 design.

"y name is Simon and I've been interested in space since I was a
little boy. I'm three weeks older than the space age, which should
give you an idea of my age."

You are young! Did you see the Sputnik page on ASG?
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/satellite/sputnik.html

"I'm particularly interested in Cold War space, and unflown space
projects. I'm also interested in British Space being British. (Yes
we once did have a space programme but it was cancelled for reasons
that are still unclear.)"

Yes, it would be nice if the British Government put more money in
space. Beagle 2 is British and hopefully the Mars Rover will have a
sucessful mission. Yes, it would be nice if the UK put some money in
a project like the Ascender Space Plane, I believe it could be
financially viable for quick sub-orbirtal space tourist flights.

"As to the question as to the economics of re-usable and expendable
launch vehicles it depends on what you mean. Re-usable vehicles can
be (or should be) developed more like aircraft with progressive
flight testing. Expendable vehicles which have no non-destructive
abort capability either work or are destroyed."

I think NASA should start a competetion and see if they can develop a
rocket engine that can be re-used at least 1000 times. I think
development costs wil be high if the use kero, perhaps methane would
be an excellent propellant because its cheaper and has a higher ISP
than say kero/lox.

Anyway, I better go and continue editing aerospaceguide.

Bye for now,

Vic