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One of the biggest expenses in current space operations is ground crew, which typically numbers in the thousands. Under the status quo there is simply no incen
by motters 17y ago
One of the biggest expenses in current space operations is ground crew, which typically numbers in the thousands. Under the status quo there is simply no incentive to reduce this number, and there are often incentives to increase it to create new jobs. In the original space shuttle concept the ground crew was supposed to be no larger than a few hundred, but it didn't work out that way.
Commercializing rocketry should mean that ground crew size and turnaround times can be minimized, since there is a direct financial incentive to control costs.
- ericd 17y agoFair, but even if it were extremely efficiently run, even the fuel costs of lifting large masses into orbit and the associated size of the vehicles required, as well as the resultant complexity of such a thing would be prohibitively expensive. Much cheaper, but still not where it needs to be. In order to do anything serious in space, it needs to become MUCH CHEAPER to put things into orbit. That is what a space elevator could accomplish. Not to say that we're ready technologically... we need to become a whole lot better at producing long carbon nanotubes.