For or Against . . .

> We've seen numbers of $10,000/lb launch costs delivered into LEO via
> the shuttle. I've also seen a report stating total launch cost per
> shuttle mission is $500,000,000. Further, the size of the launch bay
> is 40 feet with a diameter of 15 feet, and the shuttle has a cargo
> capacity of 40 tons
The cargo capacity is more like 25 tons. It was supposed to be 29500 kg, at a launch cost of $10 or 20 million in nineteen seventies' money.

> Now back to the calculations. If we can fit 288 toothbrushes into a
> cubic foot, then just the transport cost to LEO would be $24.55.
> Double or triple that to get the cargo to L5 or some other habitat
> orbit.
If the haul from LEO to HEO is done by ships propelled by mass-drivers fuelled by slag from ore processing, rather than by upper stages brought up (and fuelled) from Earth, I should not expect double or triple price to HEO. Perhaps $24.55 to LEO and 24.57 to HEO. But I look at it in this way: a human masses fifty to one hundred kg - perhaps for reasons of launch costs only the slim and trim people need apply. If each person is permitted to bring with him luggage with a mass of the same order of magnitude as himself, how much underwear and how many toothbrushes will that allow?

Jon L. Beck.