Sea Dragon

Sounds good, but you're still talking about a multistage rocket...
It's a proven technology, but I think the biggest problem is still the
expense.. They claimed 60 to 600 dollars per kg in 1962 when it was
designed.. That would be about 400 to 4000 per kg in todays dollars..
You might be able to cut down the cost a little with more efficient
manufacturing processes and cheap foreign labor, but I don't think it
would be cheap enough.. At least not enough to get the amount of
material needed for the size of settlements I imagine..

Maybe for an initial "jump start" to a lunar operation would be
feasible, but there are newer launching technologies that I think are
more interesting and less expensive.. At least in my opinion...

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "ausdeye" wrote: