SPACESHIPS for travel in the solar system

Ships made from Shuttle External tanks (E.T.s)  The E.T. is as tall as a 16 story building, has 2000 cubic meters of volume-twice as much as a 747, and amasses only 33 tons!!  It supports 800 tons of fuel and LOX at liftoff, a 120 ton orbiter and two massive SRBs. Clearly, the E.T. is strong as can be.  It's made of a titanium frame with an aluminum skin and is coated with thermal insulation.  It is the ideal hull for spaceships, space station modules and surface habitat.  The ships above are potential configurations  fitted with nuclear motors.

The performance potential of ET ships is very high.

This ship is made from the conical LOX tank of the E.T. The tank is about 50' long and 28' at the widest.  It can transport about a dozen workers to the Moon.  It uses water or hydrogen from lunar polar ice and a nuclear thermal rocket motor.  This is the kind of vessel that could allow travel from LEO to L1 in the early years of lunar industrialization.