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Satellite launch failures alone can cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars Satellite costs are driven partially by launch costs. If launches are expensive

Satellite launch failures alone can cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars Satellite costs are driven partially by launch costs. If launches are expensive, then satellites need to be highly reliable. If launches are cheap, then satellites need not be so reliable, and therefore can be cheaper. Insurance averages out the costs of launch failures. Dropping the costs of satellites improves the market and introduces the possibility of mass-production, further dropping the costs and further increasing demand, which further drops the costs through economies of scale, etc. . We know what can happen, economically, because we have experience with mass-launchings in the form of the V2. http://www.google.com/search?q=v2+rocket+%2413000 http://www.google.com/search?q=v2+rocket+%2413000 A Rocket a Day Keeps the High Costs Away Then, starting with the US$13000 marginal cost of a V2, we arrive at a cost of ... One analogy in particular regarding V2 rockets, Nazis, and ignoring the use ... The recurring cost was $13000 a launch for those vehicles. ...

tom_rath 18y ago
That document is specious. Getting something to orbit is a lot harder than launching a whack of V2s (holding nothing but an explosive payload) across the English Channel and the huge market for rockets foreseen in 1993 (when that paper was written) disappeared with the bankruptcy of the Iridium, Orbcomm, Globalstar, Odyssey, etc. communication constellations. Today we can mass-produce missiles which are much more effective than the V2, but we still cannot create cheap orbital vehicles. Mass production and cheap launches would be a sure-fire money-maker, right? That it hasn't happened in a half-century of western rocket technology should raise a bright red flag that something other than willpower or a global conspiracy is keeping it from happening.

tom_rath 18y ago

That document is specious. Getting something to orbit is a lot harder than launching a whack of V2s (holding nothing but an explosive payload) across the English Channel and the huge market for rockets foreseen in 1993 (when that paper was written) disappeared with the bankruptcy of the Iridium, Orbcomm, Globalstar, Odyssey, etc. communication constellations. Today we can mass-produce missiles which are much more effective than the V2, but we still cannot create cheap orbital vehicles. Mass production and cheap launches would be a sure-fire money-maker, right? That it hasn't happened in a half-century of western rocket technology should raise a bright red flag that something other than willpower or a global conspiracy is keeping it from happening.