Cost of Space Travel

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released a report of the costs
of Shuttle Operations. I have taken this from the 2009 figures -
there were five flights, cost per flight was $596.34 million each.
With a 24.4 metric ton payload this is a cost of $24.44 million per
metric ton. Where would a commercial entity cut costs?

Total Space Shuttle: $2,981.7 million

Flight and Ground Operations: $1,031.2 million
Launch & Landing: $705.5
Landing Operations $ 4.0
Mission Operations: $236.5
Flight Crew Operations: $87.6
Space & Life Sciences: $12.6
Transition: $2.0

Flight Hardwa $1,460.9 million
Orbiter: $459.1
EVA: 0.2
ET: $253.6
RSRM: $301.6
SSME: $193.8
SRB: $ 154.1
SSC Test: $30.0
Transition: $85.8

Program Integration: $489.6 million
System Engineering & Integration: $74.0
Safety and Mission Assurance: $54.8
Flight Softwa $100.9
Flight Operations & Integration: $54.8
Space Shuttle Propulsion Systems Integration: $16.6
Construction of Facilities: -
Safety & Sustainability: -
Mission Directorate Support: $12.2
Contract Administration: $25.5
Closed Accounts: $1.0
Transition: $1.5
Severance: $40.3

Here are some courses that introduce core costing concepts and apply
them to aerospace systems;

6.83J Space Systems Engineering
______
Undergrad (Spring)
(Same subject as 12.43J)
Prereq: Permission of department
Units: 3-3-6
Add to schedule Lectu T3-5 (35-225) Lab: F1-3 (35-225)
______
Design of a complete space system, including systems analysis,
trajectory analysis, entry dynamics, propulsion and power systems,
structural design, avionics, thermal and environmental control, human
factors, support systems, and weight and cost estimates. Students
participate in teams, each responsible for an integrated vehicle
design, providing experience in project organization and interaction
between disciplines. Includes several aspects of team communication
including three formal presentations, informal progress reports,
colleague assessments, and written reports. Every other year, 16.83 is
the first term in the three-term capstone subject, followed by 16.831
and 16.832. Can be taken alone.
D. L. Miller, S. Seager


16.866J Cost Estimation and Measurement Systems
______
Graduate (Fall) H-Level Grad Credit
(Same subject as ESD.361J)
Prereq: ESD.301 or a basic understanding of statistics and permission
of instructor
Units: 3-0-6
______
Focuses on principals of cost estimation and measurement systems with
specific emphasis on parametric models. Theories from the fields of
hardware, software, systems engineering, Systems of Systems, and
enterprise science will be applied to a variety of contexts (i.e.,
aerospace, IT, manufacturing). Material is divided into five major
sections: cost estimation fundamentals, parametric model development
calibration, economic principles, measurement systems, and government/
policy issues.
R. Valerdi


To design and build a rocket system from scratch costs between $5
million and $30 million per metric ton. Which is pretty much the cost
of what it takes to put something on orbit.

In a nutshell, what you do is figure out what the total structural
fraction is - how many tons - for a given vehicle - and then multiply
it by the estimated range of numbers from $5 to $30 million based on a
number of factors (maturity of the technology, overall size of the
system, overall production volume, etc.)

Different systems have different costs as well. Tankage, engine,
empennage, etc.

One way to reduce cost is to build commodity items - like MEMS rocket
arrays - and standardize on them to achieve missions. You can see the
Shuttle doesn't do this. In fact, there is a resistance to do this
since it adversely impacts the standing army of men and women that
work to keep the Shuttle flying.

This paper describes what might be possible;

http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyM...V2005_3650.pdf

At 50 pounds per square inch and $10 per square inch for MEMS rockets,
and 1,000 to 1 thrust to weight - A metric ton of lift costs $440 and
the device itself weighs only 2.2 pounds! It is also highly
efficient, reliable, controllable, and so forth.

I have developed a technique to use HDTV control methodology to
control the direction as well as the amount of thrust a 'propulsive
surface' produces

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzXwctPXT4c

WIth this sort of performance (and appropriate attention paid to MEMS
based and Micro-based pumps and piping) structural fractions as low as
5% are obtained.

A 1,000 ton engine set forms a disk that spans 7 meters (22 ft) and
lifts 720 tons take off weight vehicle that weighs 40 tons empty. The
cost of the vehicle at $10 million per ton is $400 million. Reused
1,000 times costs pe rlaunch is $400,000, 680 tons at $100 per ton for
cryogens is another $68,000 - operating costs less than $500,000 -
total cost less than $1 million per launch. $1 billion for 1,000
launches - including vehicle purchase.

The payload is 59.79 tons using hyrogen oxygen - more than double the
space shuttle. The vehicle comes back and lands under rocket power
like the DC-X making good use of the MEMS technology.

Five vehicles would put nearly 300,000 tons into orbit over 1,000
launches for less than $5 billion.

Even in large scale production the payload itself would cost $5
million per kg. So, each launch would cost $30 million on that
basis.

A fleet of five vehicles launched one every other day would produce 15
launches per month and have a 10 day turn-around per vehicle. Total
cost $465 million per month - the same cost as a single space shuttle
launch.