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Elon Musk's SpaceX Offers Low-Cost Rockets
HobbySpacer writes "The cover article of the latest issue of Aviation Week looks at SpaceX and how its Falcon line of rockets threatens to shake up the space launch industry. Founded by Elon Musk, who also started PayPal, SpaceX is developing the Falcon I (first flight this summer) and Falcon V (first flight in 2005) that will cost as little as 20-30% of what competitors like Orbital Sciences and Boeing charge for comparable vehicles."
'cause then.. we can have the ultimate motivation for human endeavour.. profit!
I am not terribly educated on cost and reliability figures for sending payloads into orbit, but it would seem to me that a satellite can't be cheap. When you're looking for options on how to get the bugger into orbit, would you rather choose the status quo for a twice to three times the cost or the upstarts? I guess there will need to be people willing to take the risk and send up a few satellites to show reliability.
But I'm all for it. Competition is a good thing, right?
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
More to the point will Insurance Companies be willing to underwrite a launch on a vehicle with no launch history built by a company with no history?
I wish them luck but they have a hellva barrier to entry to overcome.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
For the payloads of today, you are right. But first of all, falcon I and especially falcon V is designed to be extremely reliable. Simple technology has a tendency to just work once it is debugged. Just ask the russians.
And second, the main reason satellites are so expensive is that they have to use very exotic materials and low margins to save mass. If you have a cheaper launcher you can build your satellite heavier, cheaper and more rugged.
Private property is the central institution of a free society (David Friedman)
Previously mentoned on /. about how some gears were in backwards yet never broke is an example of how tough the specs are.
Mmm... no. That's not about specs, it's an example of how NOT to design mechanical parts.
These gears could be put in two ways, the right way was non-obvious, and when put in the wrong way, the gears more-or-less work (so the problem doesn't show up during testing) until the time of unusual stress.
This really should be a textbook case of how not to do things.
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
The key to lowering the cost of launches is mass production and that means emphasizing manufacturing design, rather than rocket design. Yes, you must build something that will fly. But if you don't do a good job building the systems (the factory) that build the systems (the rockets), you will be stuck forever in a high-cost hell of precision, one-off, hand-assembled, hand-tweaked machines. This means using standaridzed parts, designing custom parts that can be mass-produced at low cost, and design easy-to-assemble, easy-to-lauch rockets.
It also means having enough volume that you can afford to invest in factory. This is the real chicken-and-egg problem. Without a high volume of launches, you can't justify the invetsment in a multi-billion dollar rocket factory and streamlined launch process. And without the rocket factory, you can't get the launch price low enough to create the launch volume. I do hope that some of the remaining wealthy internet entrepeneurs invest their collective billions in this endevour.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
There are a lot of millionaires who can't afford $20 million but do think that $5 million is a good deal. The former trip is four times as expensive as the latter. You are falling victim to the common fallacy that "the rich" are a nebulous, homogenous group. Some people can afford $20 million for a thrill. Some can afford $5 million. Some can afford $100K. Some can afford $10K. Some can afford $100. There isn't any fixed line between "the rich" and "everybody else".
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.