/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15954157
The original idea for the Shuttle program was to have a fleet of four orbiters each launching 24 times per year, for a total of about 96 missions, for about $2000kg. Falcon 9 launched 96 missions last year, most of which were carrying a payload equal to a max-capacity Shuttle flight, for about $1500/kg. No one has ever really bothered to think about what a fully functional Starship program could look like beyond "a lot of big, cheap launches happen off camera" in something like The High Frontier.

>>15283368
If you want to go further from Mars with current technology it is actually essentially that you launch from the Moon, because that fuel will let you get a lot further.
Both times the Space Shuttle failed was because of problems related to fuel and fuel tanks. The Space Shuttle was actually considered a better way of getting to space and back, but it’s very expensive so they had to switch to rockets. I think it won’t be expensive at all to launch it from the Moon.