>But really, these are ballistic trajectories. Are we going to put everyone in G suits? I assume you mean because minimum-energy ballistic trajectories[1] come

>But really, these are ballistic trajectories. Are we going to put everyone in G suits? I assume you mean because minimum-energy ballistic trajectories[1] come into the atmosphere very steeply, so the G-forces are much higher. But by using flatter trajectories (closer to an orbit than a parabolic "hop"), you reduce the angle of entry considerably, at the expense of using more fuel. The result is that for Earth-to-Earth rockets, essentially all trip distances require the same amount of fuel. >It takes about 30 minutes between when they start loading people onto a plane and when they take off (and baggage is already on!). I wonder if they can pack baggage into a lightweight "carriage" during the boat ride, the simply load that single carriage onto the rocket. Or even a few carriages. It will incur a mass penalty ("box within a box"), which means fewer passengers. But if it speeds up total trip time it could improve competitiveness with long-distance plane trips. Either that, or just force everyone to buy SpaceX-brand standardized luggage that's ultra mass-efficient and supports automated handling/loading. :) [1] http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2014/06/travel-on-airless-worlds.html http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2014/06/travel-on-airless-w...