The scrap-hull vs. the moon-mine (was Half a quadrillion bucks per g

> > If you are referring to launching rocks from the moon,
> > why not compare that to the cost of [big dumb boosters]?
> Because luna electrical launch delivering simple baulk
> material will undercut BDBs in a long term project.

I didn't just spec BDB's -- I speced "rocket bodies". That would be
the BDB's themselves -- not just their "payloads" -- launched all the
way to orbit (instead of simply boosting higher-stages), and then
left in orbit for their value as scrap-metal. If moon-rock-mass could
be valued in orbit, why would we not value rocket-hull-mass at equal
or greater degree? If, in orbit, moon-rock-mass were valued at
$10/lb, that might very well exceed the cost of launching BDB rocket-
hull-mass to orbit.

Am I wrong? Why is it that -- in the context of a moon-rock economy --
we do not count the scrap-value of orbited rocket-hull mass?

> Because RLVs will very probably undercut BDB in launching
> complex earth equipment.

If the hull of the vehicle itself has scrap-metal value in orbit, it
might not make sense to return it to Earth. The cost/lb of launching
any value-added cargo inside of a scrap-valued vehicle is levelized
with the cost of launching the scrap -- the latter which could easily
be five or more times the mass of the value-added cargo. In a single-
stage-to-orbit scrap-value vehicle, the vehicle mass might be more
than ten or even one hundred times the mass of any value-added cargo
carried inside. Again, all of this valued scrap mass reduces to a
common level the cost of carrying *any* cargo -- even value-added
cargo.

If we are valuing scrap metal (or even scrap fiber-reinforced
concrete, for that matter, since if rocks have value in orbit we
might as well launch single-stage rockets made out of them and leave
them up there) in space, we might as well be launching single-stage
rockets, which would save money in at least one respect by reducing a
lot of the complexity (the multi-staging) of a launch. Can an RLV, or
even electric Moon-mining, undercut the per-pound cost of launching
as-heavy-as-we-can-make-them big dumb rocket hulls *themselves*, if
the main costs for launching single-stage scrap-hulls to orbit --
which I believe are south of $10/lb to LEO?