[ExI] cost of SBSP and thorium

[Adrian Tymes]

On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 9:25 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 08:43:04AM -0700, spike wrote:
>> Another example is that the cost of delivering a single gram to LEO isn't
>> all that much lower than the cost of delivering 100 kg, if you are needing
>> specific orbit parameters.  It is well above that before the cost starts to
>> scale proportional to payload.  This assumes away of course the getaway
>> specials they used to have when we had a shuttle, which were one kg class
>> payloads.  I don't know if there is anything analogous to those
>> opportunities today.
>
> You've got microsats and nanosats, down to cubesats which take
> a ride on a sat bus.

Sat buses aren't "specific orbit parameters".  I've been working on a way
to launch single CubeSats (~1 kg) as their own missions, which could
allow for specific orbit parameters, for under $100K.  (The specific intent
is to reduce the minimum cost to get something into space, for those
who can only get double-digit-million dollar budgets after they demonstrate
with less - which is most of the private sector.) Whether or not I succeed,
if it's theoretically possible for me, then it's theoretically possible for the
kind of organization that would be needed to make and launch space
power sats.