Admittedly, launches cost way too high. However, the question was about space exploration, not exploitation. No corporation is going to spend big bucks on space exploration simply because they don't see any return on their investment even if the launch costs are low. Lower launch costs will help make marginal projects more profitable and will lower the cost of exploration missions. That's a good thing. Still, until the average citizen sees some benefit from space exploration, the support for spending will be thin.
Back to a manned Mars mission, a high percentage of any project's cost will be for systems R&D, training, etc. Lowering launch costs could cut the cost somewhat but probably by no more than 20-30% of the total costs. A 30% reduction in a $50 billion project still leaves a price tag of $35 billion.
Space/Science » in reply to Re: I didn't see anything new
Cost of launch is only part of the equation
The whole thread (22 posts)
- Selling space...
- Another F******g Retard from the Space Frontier Foundation
- I didn't see anything new
- Re: Selling space...