Come on People! Let's use a little NON-COLD WAR brain power. I am of the cold war generation, and thought a little more cooperation would go a long way. But now I see NASA is going to design a NEW heavy lift vehicle... What do we need that for? realy.....
1. Existing technology - I believe the base rocket is the Ariene V or 5 (if you are not Roman) this is a heavy lift Rocket. There is also the Atlas 5 and by God there is the Shuttle technology. and that is just in the EU and Russia.
2. We (The EARTH, not the various tribes) Have A Space Station. (We just built it with current technology). Why not use it to build our moon rocket from various parts. that is what the scientists of the 1950s figured we'd do. then we would not need anything bigger than the biggest rockets we now have.
3. Moon landers LEMs.... didn't the USA and Russia build a couple back in the 1960s. the US one actually got Moon side and the russians was perfectly capable as well. The US LEM had a throttleable engine it is not obsolete so why redesign the wheel?
What I am saying (After reading several flightglobal articles today is COOPERATION.Tthis is not the cold war, and we cold warriors have to stand down. NOW.
We NEED to go to the moon, and we need to go internationally, the world has the technology, the humans have the technology, the war is over, we warriors are old, we need to let go, It will be more fun to include everyone, as the tide lifts all boats, so too does cooperation lift all humans.
For the United States the trip to the moon was the first time in history, technology advanced (let us all now look at our smart phones) without killing a lot of people. Lets not make that the last time.
To the Moon And Beyond, Together!
Captn Tommy