Some of the engineers who are working on the NASA Ares moon
rocket leave the office in the evening and work on a new rocket that could be
easier and safer to build.
The competing space effort, called Jupiter, is being worked on by 57 volunteer
engineers and NASA employees. The Ares team is made up of thousands of
NASA engineers and government contractors, with one Ares project manager
already dismissing the Jupiter design, saying it won't work.
Last fall, NASA took a look at the Jupiter design, and said it was a flawed
plan that simply isn't feasible for real launches. Until NASA offers a
full review, however, workers who are on the Jupiter team are not ready to
dismiss their work.
At least one Jupiter supporter has stepped forward to accuse NASA of trying to
block information to help limit the success of the Jupiter project.
"Our concern is that by the time everyone figures this out, we will have
destroyed our heavy-lift system," former
NASA contractor and now supporter of Jupiter Steve Metschan told the Associated
Press. "At the end of the day, all we're asking for is an
independent review of all this stuff."
The new design also could help NASA save $35 billion in development and
manufacturing costs, at a time when NASA is struggling with budget
issues. NASA anticipates spending up to $230 billion to return to the
moon over the next 20 years, with NASA already spending around $7 billion on
Ares development.
NASA officials said they take all proposals seriously, but they haven't found
one that is able to compete with Ares.
The current generation NASA shuttle retires in 2010, and the Ares rocket won't
be available until 2014 or 2015. NASA research says there is a 65 percent
chance of the Ares-I carrying the Orion spacecraft into space by March
2015. NASA will have to rely on Russian shuttles and space capsules to
get astronauts and food supplies up to the International Space Station (ISS).