669 P.S.

--- In spacesettlers, Al Globus wrote:

> On Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 09:55 AM, Bob Hardman wrote:

>> P.S.
>> By the Way, just how much DOES it cost to get a single
>> sheet of toilet paper into orbit ?
>>
>> The answer should be interesting.... -and enlightening....
>>
>> Bob H.

Are we talking a dedicated shuttle launch for that one sheet of TP?
That little square of tissue costs a half billion dollars.

> It depends on the launch vehicle. Only manned vehicles make sense
> since robots don't need toilet paper.

So send the people up on a manned vehicle with a little TP, and an
unmanned vehicle stuffed to the gills with packets (not rolls) of TP.

> A nice round figure for the shuttle is $10,000/lb. You can argue
> for lower or higher figures, but this is about right. Now the hard
> part: weigh a sheet of toilet paper and do the math.

One of my rolls of TP weighs about a half pound (best guess). So
even using the shuttle, that's about $5,000. Now, this roll contains
260 sheets. So: 5000.00/260=$19.23(*) per sheet. Now that doesn't
count the cardboad tube, but but again, you aren't sending a single
sheet alone, you are sending up a lot at one time.

Use a better launch vehicle (unmanned, $2,500 per pound), with 600
sheet-per pound, carboard tubeless packets, and the cost becomes:
2500.00/600=$4.17(*) per sheet.

Conclusion: switch to bidets as soon as possible.

Xenophile (thanks for pointing out the bidet, Lucio)