JF Mezei wrote on Tue, 24 Apr 2018
16:36:20 -0400:

On 2018-04-24 14:21, David Spain wrote:

I am of the opinion that the existing F9 and F9H architectures will be
(crew-wise) underutilized.


Unless the space station life is extended beyond 2025, FH and Dragon2
may very well remain the workhorse for mnanned space in USA.


So Boeing is irrelevant in your mind?


And unless there is real funding for manned space programme beyond ISS,
nobody will see much business case to invest in manned space programme
from now on, unless you go for it on your own (aka: SpaceX with BFR to
Mars).


The issue here is that Bigelow seems to have jumped in bed with ULA.
If that extends to ferrying supplies and 'guests' to 'space hotels',
they might not let SpaceX vehicles dock.


Where the "international" thing may fall in place is if SpaceX gets
serius about mars and other countries want "in" on the project,
supplying modules for the Mars colony or any other "help" they can
provide to SpaceX.


Or just people who want to go to Mars. If there are enough, it would
make sense to launch from almost anywhere.


But unless a place like Australia could provide a huge cost and
logistics benefit to have SpaceX launch/land there, SpaceX might not be
so interested when you consider transportation logistics for modules
built in USA.


Remember, BFR Spaceship can do point to point travel on Earth and land
anywhere there's a big enough piece of concrete.


In the case of a LEO assembly/refueling spot to later go to Mars, would
launching from 12°S (northern Australia) offer significant performance
advantage over 28°N (Canaveral)?


I don't think it buys you that much. BFR Spaceship is 'no assembly
required'. You just need to be able to launch fuel tankers to the
same orbital plane. They're going to be doing the manufacturing in
the LA area and then transporting to the original launch site by ship.
I think all the inspection and such will occur at the launch site.
That makes locating the facility outside the US something of an ITAR
issue. I wouldn't expect Australia to be a problem, but you never
know...


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw