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In order to send HLS to the moon they need something like 20 regular starship launches which is a bit insane. I think it will be great for putting people and th
by Shawnj2 3y ago
In order to send HLS to the moon they need something like 20 regular starship launches which is a bit insane. I think it will be great for putting people and things in LEO but past that point I’m not sure.
- avmich 3y agoMaybe not so many. Assuming 1200 tons of fuel for Starship on LEO ( from here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_(spacecraft) ) and 100-150 tons of payload, it's 8-12 Starship launches to fuel up the orbital stage which can fly to the Moon.
- Shawnj2 3y agoEither way it’s a huge number of launches
- avmich 3y agoBut it's also a huge payload to surface, in one piece. As for proportionality, it's up to Starship Isp - which isn't hydrogen, but rather good in comparison with kerosene (well... some Russian vacuum kerosene engines are quite good by Isp...) - and construction mass ratio, which, usually favoring large stages, is rather good for Starship. So, for those 8-12 refueling launches you get payload on the surface of the Moon which dwarfs the one sent by Saturn-Vs, by an order of magnitude or quite likely more. And - important part - all of that is much cheaper, because the main thing being expended is fuel, not rocket stage hardware.