to Major Tim...

Tenner says I'm not the first requiring access to the cloakroom

Space geek pedant nazi here, just to point out that "Jules Verne" was the name given to the first ATV to launch and dock with the ISS. "ATV", Automated Tranfer Vehicle, is the correct name for these vehicles. The next one is going to be called Johannes Kepler (not to be confused with the separate Kepler spacecraft, http://kepler.nasa.gov/ .)

Yeah, thanks, mine's the one with the British Interplanetary Society magazine in the pocket.

Assuming Musk's boys pull it off, the SpaceX Dragon capsule should be tested for ISS docking and return by the end of this year. Or so their launch manifest claims. So Soyuz hopefully won't be the only transfer capable vehicle available.

I thought a Podule<TM>was one of them things what you rammed in the back of an Acorn<TM> Archimedes<TM> 400 series.

Mine's the Anorak with the loose ARM<TM>

its not that difficult to get to mars ..

all you need is

a bigger rocket

more balls

presto !!!

... all that research on parafoils has apparently been forgotten about. Rogallo's original incarnation of this in the 60s never went anywhere space-wise, although it was eventually "repurposed" for hang-glider and paraglider design. More recently, the X38 design used a parafoil to allow controlled re-entry and soft landing within an amazingly precise target area, and that'd work anywhere with a viable atmosphere (including Mars). But we're still stuck with poorly-engineered space shuttles that need mega-runways, and NASA's "new" designs seem to have wound the clock back to using dumb re-entry capsules under dumb round parachutes that can't land anywhere more specific than "somewhere in the Pacific", or old-stylee retro-boosters that require you to load a whole lot more fuel.

Don't get me wrong - I don't mind NASA, ESA and the rest spending money on research. I *do* mind when they've spent on a load of research and then thrown away the results.

It would be a grate way for China to improve its image aboroad and get more bang for its Yen if it where to get involved in the ISS programe.

This 'ere spacecraft, that's a development of the Advanced Reentry Vehicle, right?

The ARV is a development of the Automated Transfer Vehicle, yes?

And the ATV was designed to burn up on reentry.....?

Can I have my coat now please?

As it was designed to be launch vehicle for the French, er European Hermes crewed shuttle.

Note that "man-rated" is a very iffy term to use. It is often said that the Shuttle fails NASA guildines on the design of such a vehicle and I don't even know if the European version of them (if they did not pick up the NASA stuff wholesale) is public. I think anything with solid rocket boosters was viewed as a no-no. NASA issues "waivers" so such irritations can be ignored.

I pressume any version of the upgraded ATV for crew use would need some kind of escape rocket system (as Soyuz has and the new CEV will have)