On Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 4:20:15 PM UTC-5, David Spain wrote:
It's an interesting question. On the face of it, unless I've blown the gloss over math, [it] looks like prices are about a 2-to-1 ratio in favor of the rocket fuel! If Musk's figures for F9 are right. But then a tug isn't going to burn ALL 200K gallons on a single tow of only 500 miles round trip in light seas either. If it burns, let's say 40K gallons, that'd put it at $115K to tow in a F9 booster, we're already at 1/2 again the price of an F9 burn there. Hmmmm...

For the size and heft of the ASDS, even with an F9 first stage aboard, I gotta believe that fuel consumption figure is on the very high side of the mark. If the ASDS is modified to cruise itself via control from the command ship, the fuel economy might be also vastly improved.

The ocean-side of this equation is very interesting...

Dave