3 ms·
That seems very expensive and inefficient compared to planes or ships. What's the use case you're imagining where a plane is just too slow? The only thing I c
by elihu 6y ago
That seems very expensive and inefficient compared to planes or ships. What's the use case you're imagining where a plane is just too slow?
The only thing I can think of is if some service like FedEx can amortize the cost of the launch across a very large number of low-mass items and charge a premium for fast delivery.
Still, I'd assume that this would use vastly more fuel per mass of cargo moved than a plane, and should probably be avoided for CO2 emission reasons even if it works out economically. Is my assumption wrong?
- fastball 6y agoSpaceX's goal[1] is to be able to ship people for around the cost of a business-class ticket[2] to the same destination. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dar8P3r7GYA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dar8P3r7GYA
- renewiltord 6y agoSometimes it isn't speed. Sometimes it's about not having to go through everything in between.
- skykooler 6y agoThe last time I remember seeing calculations on this, it worked out that it does use more fuel per kilogram than a cargo plane, but only about 1.5x as much - the reason being that the starship spends most of its flight coasting with nearly zero drag, which an airplane has to fight drag in the atmosphere the whole way to its destination.
- elihu 6y agoHuh, that's interesting and completely at odds with my intuition. If it works out like that maybe it is an economically and (sort of) environmentally viable option.