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"  When the e-mail from Doug Cooke, head of NASA&amp;#039;s Constellation program, blinked onto Ross Tierney&amp;#039;s computer screen a few weeks ago, he bolted upright. The two men sit on opposite ends of the debate over the future of NASA&amp;#039;s human spaceflight program, and the outreach signaled that something peculiar was happening in Washington, D.C. Tierney, an amateur space buff, is an outspoken advocate for Jupiter Direct, a rocket designed to replace NASA&amp;#039;s Ares 1 and Ares V, the two launch vehicles at the heart of NASA&amp;#039;s Constellation program. This  Bush-era program aims to bring supplies and crew to the International Space Station and, later, to the moon. Cooke&amp;#039;s e-mail invited Tierney to make a presentation about the Direct rocket, which was developed by a rebel group of moonlighting NASA engineers disgruntled with the Ares 1.  The Jan. 19 meeting, which also included NASA human spaceflight boss Bill Gerstenmaier, was ordered by NASA administrator Charles Bolden. &amp;quot;The meeting went very well,&amp;quot; Tierney says. &amp;quot;They seemed quite receptive to our ideas.&amp;quot; Little more than a week later, anonymous Obama administration officials told reporters that NASA is set to ditch the Ares 1 and V by cutting all funding for the program from the budget. Insiders now tell PM that the two launch systems will eventually be replaced by a single shuttle-stack heavy-lift rocket that could be similar to the Direct proposal. That rocket relied heavily on components from the space shuttle and Ares, with the shuttle&amp;#039;s external fuel tank serving as the body of the main rocket. Two five-segment versions of the shuttle&amp;#039;s solid-rocket boosters\u2014currently under development as the first stage of the Ares 1\u2014would help provide the initial oomph. In single-stage form, such a new rocket could lift 100 metric tons into low Earth orbit, making it a more capable space-station taxi than the private rockets being developed under NASA&amp;#039;s initiatives to fill the post-shuttle gap. Fitted with a second stage, the new rocket would also be able to launch robot probes and astronauts toward whatever deep-space target NASA chooses in the post-Constellation era. If NASA pursues this heavy-lifting launch vehicle, the choice of engines for the first and second stages will be critical. According to Tierney and other insiders, one option could use three man-rated versions of the Rocketdyne RS-68 in the first-stage. Currently used in the Delta IV satellite launcher, the RS-68 would need to be modified with a regenerative nozzle-cooling system. The upper stage would use the J-2X, now under development for the upper stages of the Ares 1 and V. This rocket is by no means complete; it would not fly until 2017 at the earliest\u2014about the same time the doomed Ares 1 was expected to enter service. NASA could instead choose to use off-the-shelf engines. This option could produce a rocket that would optimistically fly as early as 2012, according to Tierney. A cluster of four space shuttle main engines (SSMEs) lifted directly from retired shuttles would power the first stage. The reusable SSME is more expensive than the throwaway RS-68, but 17 already exist\u2014enough to fly four missions. In the meantime, Rocketdyne could build more SSMEs or develop a cheaper expendable version. For its upper stage, this rocket would use a cluster of four to six Rocketdyne RL-10s, the motor that has powered the workhorse Centaur upper stage for nearly 50 years. Human-rating the RL-10 would be relatively quick and cheap, advocates say. Either shuttle-stack option is likely to play well with industry. All the major Ares and shuttle players\u2014Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ATK Thiokol, Pratt &amp;amp;amp; Whitney Rocketdyne and United Space Alliance\u2014would get a piece of the new pie. But how it plays with Congress is another matter. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s going to be a battle on the Hill,&amp;quot; one insider predicts. A number of senators and Congressmen from space-industry districts have already spoken out in support of Constellation. But Direct proponent Steve Metschan thinks the new rocket could fly if sold properly to Congress. &amp;quot;Eighty percent of the value of the Constellation program will carry over to the new plan,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;The replacement proposal I&amp;#039;ve seen really isn&amp;#039;t that much different than the original Ares V concept, before it started growing out of control.&amp;quot; President Obama will officially reveal his budget, and his plans for NASA, on Monday, Feb. 1. NASA officials deferred answers to questions until after the budget is released. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a5100/4344095/>