Posted on 03/04/2025 2:16:19 PM PST by Skwor
The economics are straight out of Heinlein.
The question, of course, is why would Elon want to be able to build a new Starship every day? The things are reusable: even a handful would revolutionize space, and certainly no one has mass produced such things before. Who would even buy them?
(Excerpt) Read more at rodmartin.org ...
Build O'Neil colonies at L-1 thru L-5, ship goods back to Earth that can be only manufactured in zero gee, and infinite power and vacuum, while developing mass drivers.
Example. Pure gold is HIGHLY conductive, and there is a rock of several million tons of the stuff in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Mine it, use the gold for wiring...
It isn't SciFi, just engineering.
Just read the article. The author is neglecting one thing. Starship is likely to need refueling at the destination. Maybe it could do air drop and return to orbit, but that will reduce payload.
I like!
As I said, a concept article and you may be picking nits. at 200 tons I suspect a rocket can carry a payload of fuel as well for operations.
Orbital mining is the way to go. Problem is chemical rockets really don’t cut it. I hope Spacex is researching nuclear propulsion. That’s what it’s going to take.
“doesn’t repeat for ~35 years”
Are you sure about that? I read that the launch window from Earth to Mars occurs every 26 months.
Good idea.
I wrote an article touching on this a couple of months ago.
https://www.ammoland.com/2024/12/will-spacex-make-rods-from-god-and-other-future-weapons-a-reality/
Starship is likely to need refueling at the destination. Maybe it could do air drop and return to orbit, but that will reduce payload.
Well, I wasn’t supposed to tell you but Elon is a StarChild, the name is from his home civilization. Added Musk for fun.
He flew/drove his own car from his hidden planetoid where his folks sorted out most of the mechanics and resources of our quaint solar system eons ago. Doing it for the Jazz, Baby.
Then there is the problem of Russia and China saying such frequent launches to their backyards will be met by a few of their own, of a type more climatic.
However, assembling a starship via integrated modular parts might be feasible. I see a future in electric cars here as well once a small efficient safe powerful batteries are invented. You could order compatible parts like you can to build a computer via https://pcpartpicker.com
Ultimately I see starship being used for earth to Leo, then nuclear propulsion for interplanetary travel. Once the nuke elements are in orbit, Starship can be the “safe” way to get stuff out of the gravity well.
The Raptor engine is powered by methane, something which is in high abundance on Mars. That is supposedly the reason they switched from kerosene in the earlier generation engines.
Methane is not abundant on Mars.
However, CO2 and water are there. C02 + 2(H2O) + energy = CH4 (methane) + 2 (O2) Oxygen. This is fuel + oxygen for rockets. Given nuclear reactors to supply the energy you can produce rocket fuel and heat from CO2 and H2O.
Given nuclear reactors, it might be easier to use ion drives or something similar to travel to the rest of the solar system, or between Mars and Earth. Maybe just use the Starships to lift to orbit.
Correction: There may be more methane on Mars than I thought.
I think its 90%
Now you’ve got me thinking! Could one of these rockets that can slow down for a vertical landing, also overfly a DZ at say 90 knots or so for a battalion of airborne troopers to jump out and do so in a way they don’t get roasted by rocket exhaust? Having secured a DZ, more starships can land.
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