[extropy-chat] Fly Me to the Moon

[Neil Halelamien]

On 6/5/05, Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
> Charlie Stross wrote:
> > 1. A spaceship needs wings and a retractable undercarriage like an
> > automobile needs oars and sails.
> >
> I'd dispute that.
> Almost all designs for a fully reusable spacecraft have wings.

And that's a good reason for why it's premature to be vouching for
fully reusable orbital spacecraft just yet. They might be economically
justifiable (and we'll see them being developed by private industry)
once flight rates get high enough, but in the meantime a low-cost
semi-reusable like the upcoming SpaceX Falcon rockets seems a far
better option.

In the present day the per-unit construction cost of a spacecraft is
definitely -not- the main driver of launch costs.

-- Neil