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Space planes should absolutely be part of our strategy, but their effectiveness diminishes once you get past LEO. An effective program would have different veh
by Amorymeltzer 11y ago
Space planes should absolutely be part of our strategy, but their effectiveness diminishes once you get past LEO. An effective program would have different vehicles for different purposes, using the right tool for each job.
- nickff 11y agoTaking mass to low earth orbit (LEO) is the gating item to increased space travel and exploration; Skylon, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Orbital Sciences are all focused on reducing this cost. It is quite well understood that outside of plans like Mars Direct and Semi-direct, interplanetary and interstellar travel will require other technologies such as novel electric and nuclear drives, but we are simply not at a point where that is an issue yet.[1][2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket