Gentlefolk, << That puts launch costs between $25/lb and $100/lb to LEO. Anyone think that's feasible?>>
I've seen curves that run down to those kinds of costs at large mission models. I think you start to get in that ballpark when the cost of the fuel becomes significant with respect to the other costs. Let's say a ten-ton RLV has a ten ton payload and a mass ratio of 15, for 300 ton liftoff weight, of which 280 tons are fuel. At $1000/ton ($1/liter) that's $280,000, $28,000/ton, $28/kg (about $13/lb) of payload for fuel alone. If the production model costs $100,000,000 off the line and is good for 1000 take offs and landings, thats another $100,000 per mission, $10,000 per ton, $10/kg. If lifetime maintenance is comparable to vehicle costs, another $10/kg. Other operating costs would likely be in the $10/kg area as well, so we'd be looking at circa $60/kg direct costs. Double that for overhead and return on investment (where one recoups development costs), and charge $120/kg, or circa $12k for a paying passenger (I've seen some models as low as $5k). The big driver here, assuming the aforesaid vehicle can be built) is the number of missions the vehicle can fly, and the biq question is whether you have enough demand to do all those flights in a reasonable time. --Best, Gerald _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
