Towards routine, reusable space launch.

In article , droleary@
2017usenet1.subsume.com says...

For your reference, records indicate that
Thomas Koenig wrote:

An older version of a Falcon 9 reportedly had 488 tons of total
fuel, 147 of it RP-1 (a modified kerosene). Liquid oxygen is
quite cheap, and if we give RP-1 a cost of 1 dollar per kg,
we probably are in the right ballpark. So, around 150 000 Dollar
per launch.

This is _very_ low compared to all the other costs. A launch
cost around 50 to 60 million dollars now, if I remember the
figures right.

That?s just the problem: you?re only accounting for the cost of
the fuel, whereas I would consider large parts of ?all the other
costs? as inherently part of the efficiency equation. After all,
if we found a way to eliminate the boosters entirely, the savings
is obviously not just from the decrease in fuel.

Sure, sure, Star Trek style transporters with infinite range. I'll get
right on that.

Meanwhile, in the real world, that's not how to optimize the cost of a
transportation system in order to minimize the $ per kg to orbit.

Jeff

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