Re: Space Taxis
"people could live on the Shuttle - was very much like having a caravan parked at the side of your house. Not sure the Dragon has as much capacity."
It doesn't from the drawings I've seen. Apollo was "liveable" for 3 people for a week or so. Dragon would probably be similarly "liveable" for 7 for a week or so, but not like the Shuttle, which had actual sleeping areas, etc. - yeah, like a Winnebago in Space [sorta reminds me of a movie, what was it...]
One of the smartest things that could be done within the next year is to re-use some of those human launch boosters to put a 2nd station into orbit, one designed to be a fueling station and depot between Earth-launched vehicles and a pure space "moon shuttle" vehicle (designed to make the lunar run in a day or two, then rinse/repeat and do it again, staying in space). ideally we will want this eventually, but why not start something NOW ? An ISS2 maybe but specifically designed for the refuel+resupply and passenger/crew exchanges.
And yeah, let the Russian and EU and other space agencies contribute, too, maybe use it for their own exploration - way better than ground-launching a satellite to Mars, put the booster minus fuel into orbit, put the fuel into orbit on subsequent (or simultaneous flights), fuel up in space, send the thing to Mars, and have the Mars booster thingy COME BACK TO EARTH ORBIT to be re-used...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
