Comments

Sticking with the English system is such cultural stupidity. The Carter administration tried to get people to change, but that effort failed. The metric system is so much easier to use. The rest of the world made the change decades ago, why can't we? You buy sodas by the Liter, so what's the problem?

I few years ago, I suggested to an acquaintance of mine that the shuttle should be retrofitted for trips outside of earth orbit. I suggested that part of the cargo bay could be used for extra fuel for the engines and expanded crew quarters. I was thinking of missions to the asteroid belt, or perhaps to the moon with a lunar lander stored in part of the cargo bay. He said the Shuttle leaked. Not a problem for a few weeks stay in orbit, but missions with months long durations would be a problem. Additionally, he said that geometry of the crew quarters section of the Shuttle had a geometry with too many creases and corners to make fixing the problem not practical. The acquaintance designed the avionics software for the X-38 re-entry vehicle and I have no doubt he has worked on Shuttle systems as well. So, the Shuttle will never fly to Mars.