Apparently, that's the name of the new launch vehicles that NASA wants to develop, which will be announced in a couple hours. The Crew Launch Vehicle (heretofore called CLV) will be the Ares 1, and the Cargo Launch Vehicle (previously known as the CaLV) will be the Ares 5. A tribute to the Saturn numbers, I guess, and an indication of the ultimate planned destination (Barsoom).

That sounds kind of cool actually, and we need really cool names for our systems to get the public behind the effort. ;-)

I thought the Ares project involved cloning nasal cells.

Wasn't that what Zubrin called his proposed heavy-lift booster in "The Case for Mars?" Copycats.

"Wasn't that what Zubrin called his proposed heavy-lift booster in "The Case for Mars?" Copycats"

Copycat? More like Zurbin got his wish! I ma sure it is with his great blessing.

My prediction is this.

The Ares 1=Atlas 554

The Areas 5 = 4/5 RD-180's + J2-x + 2 SRB's

The Ares 1 is already unaffordable as the single stick SRB and the Ares 5 with LOX/H2 is just stupid and the result of amateur$ trying to design a launch vehicle with a nod to the Shuttle.

Ras

Hmm. Now I think I see why Rand and others believe that the Ares 1 and 5 are a waste of money, if they think we're going to Barsoom. After all, John Carter got there by teleporting from a cave somewhere in the American West (g).

Hmm. Now I think I see why Rand and others believe that the Ares 1 and 5 are a waste of money, if they think we're going to Barsoom. After all, John Carter got there by teleporting from a cave somewhere in the American West (g).

Hmm. Now I think I see why Rand and others believe that the Ares 1 and 5 are a waste of money, if they think we're going to Barsoom. After all, John Carter got there by teleporting from a cave somewhere in the American West (g).

Personaly, I would have preferred something more appropriate, like Capricorn 1. (Big Grin!)

1) Capricorns are teh Ghey!

2) OJ said he would only go to Mars if NASA would help him look for the 'real killers' there.

I just reread A PRINCESS OF MARS recently, and how John Carter got to Mars from that cave in Arizona is a real mystery. It wasn't teleportation since he left his earthly body behind, apparently in suspended animation, for something like ten years. But it isn't exactly astral projection, either, since he manifests on Mars in a physical, flesh and blood (if naked) body. I suspect ol' Ed was just spinning a yarn long on gusto and short on plausibility. On the other hand, speaking as someone who lived in Arizona for 14 years before moving back to Illinois, I have to say that allowing for the florid prose in the descriptions, Burroughs described the early-on Arizona scenes accurately, like someone who had been there (which, of course, he had, as a cavalry soldier).

Is there any good reason why you can't just call it NLS and build it at Decatur?