Launch costs

Robert: You talked about Pioneer. What is your assessment of Kistler?

Ron Menich

"Clements, Robert"
ssi_list@... ssi_list@...
03/28/01 09:09 PM
Please respond to
ssi_list

It should be cheaper to produce fuel than rockets, that is why a
reusable
launch vehicle should be cheaper than an expendible launch
vehicle.
Fuel
production can be automated much more easily than the assembly
of
booster
stages. The problem is the space shuttle main engines aren't
robust
enough
for immediate reuse, also their is the cost of manufacturing
external tanks.
The ET and SRBs should be replaced with a lower reusible stage
as
was the
original plan for the space shuttle, and the engines of both
components
should be modified for robustness and ease of maintenence. The
Shuttle Design
should be optimised for the maximum number of launches per year.

Tom Kalbfus

It should; but shoulds don't pay the rent. Reuseable launch vehicles have
continuing construction costs, too: the debt serving based on the
construction of the original unit; the assets put to one side to pay for
the
construction of a replacement unit; servicing the unit (including regular
replacement of engines - even Pioneer only expected their engines to last 8
flights, if i remember rightly... never guaranteed); any continuing launch
infrastructure costs your booster may require; & of course the increased
flight insurance costs when your very expensive reueseable is the company's
only way of getting into space. Regular launch turn around makes these
numbers better; but even assuming Pioneer's goal - one launch every 14d -
the question of market elasticity looms large: are there really 26 payloads
out there to fly on a RLV which can't be booster cheaper on a exSoviet
rocket?

Pioneer found that there wasn't.

Kermit the frog might consider that it isn't easy being green; but it's
actually pretty hard to make the numbers on RLV boosters make obvious
economic sense... & that's why commercial financing was so hard to find.

All the best,
Robert Clements Robert.Clements@...
endeavour2 project http://www.geocities.com/robtclements/endeavour2.html>