http://www.thespacereview.com/article/782/1
If you can return the entire lander to lunar orbit, this implies that it could be refueled and reused, which also implies that there is a place (a depot) to dock, refuel, and resupply (and live in during an emergency) in lunar orbit. Having a depot would also allow for larger cargo payloads, since the lander could be refueled after entering lunar orbit. (Current plans call for the lander engines to assist the composite Orion vehicle in entering lunar orbit.) Apparently none of the published results of the otherwise very competently done trade-off studies, such as those done for the ESAS Report, have included reusable landers or lunar orbit infrastructure in their calculations and tradeoffs. I strongly agree with the “base first” decision just announced, but I am totally baffled by the seeming unwillingness of the NASA planners to discuss at all the use of reusable landers.
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