[ExI] structural scale dependence, was: RE: IQ and beauty

[Adrian Tymes]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 9:37 PM, Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> As an outsider, I see actual processes involved in this business as being
> overly labor intensive, which drives up costs.
>

Could you do me a small favor?  Sanity check to see if these seem like
logical improvements.

* 3D printing to drop the parts count substantially

* Making small rockets to launch small satellites, in order to have demand
for over 100 launches per year

* ...and also so the rocket has 1 payload at a popular payload size & mass,
rather than many separate customers because it's far larger than what most
people are building

* Fully autonomous flight safety system - no massive radar range with a
person making the call whether to abort or not (and, of course, sufficient
testing to prove the computer is at least as competent about this as a
person)

* Pit crew like operations, so that (regulatory clearance and preplanning
aside) the entire launch effort takes about 2 hours from "payload on
vehicle" to "payload in LEO", with the next payload starting preparations
while the previous one finishes launching
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