3 ms·
But all that extra mass does eat into the payload capacity. A craft that is 100 tonnes dry mass and delivers 20 tonnes payload needs enough fuel to boost 120 t
by 7952 11y ago
But all that extra mass does eat into the payload capacity.
A craft that is 100 tonnes dry mass and delivers 20 tonnes payload needs enough fuel to boost 120 tonnes in the last part of the flight. A centaur upper stage by comparison has a mass of just 2.2 tonnes. So for most of the flight you need much more fuel to boost the same payload.
- mikeash 11y agoWho cares about needing more fuel? As I said in the original comment, fuel is basically free. If you manage to build a craft where the cost of extra fuel (even using an order of magnitude more) even becomes noticeable, you've already managed to make launches vastly cheaper than anything out there today.