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The Business Case for Reusable Launch Vehicles
An anonymous reader writes "Remember the failures of "shuttle replacements" like VentureStar? A Space Review article argues that even if VentureStar succeeded technically, it and other proposed big RLVs would never have made it financially: they cost too much to develop and wouldn't have made it up through increased launches. What's the solution? The author says that suborbital RLVs, like what Carmack, Rutan, and the other X Prize contenders are working on, will create a business cycle that will eventually lead to orbital vehicles."
We already developed the Eagle RLVs for Moonbase Alpha more over 4 years ago. Ask Commander Koenig.
I'd be happy with some of that space broccoli.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
That big blue marble is my home you insensitive clod!
The unofficial
The earth is a penal colony for the stupid, the lazy, the criminal, and the insane. (I fall into all of the above...)
In short, unless you plan on not coming back, don't bother trying to escape.
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Earth has no survivors. Everyone who has ever been born here, has died here.
where Enos, the orbiting chimp, went in 1961.
Then sit back and see what kind of aircraft carrier sized behemoth vehicle they come up with...
Well, we certainly won't be asking you to design any Martian landers! ;)
When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx