Timeline for Isn't Starship way too big?
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| Nov 22, 2022 at 11:55 | comment | added | Slarty | @y2k The exact balance point is difficult to judge because there are so many variables and it will probably change over time (as it has with aircraft). Elon Musk has also changed his mind on several occasions, I think the original plan was for 250 tonnes+ to orbit, but he couldn't figure out how to do that quickly reliably, safely and reasonably cheaply enough so plans were scaled down. It would make life much easier to have a huge rocket, but that convenience and cost reduction due to scaling has to be set against everything else. 100tonnes is certainly enough for the first human landings. | |
| Nov 22, 2022 at 0:54 | comment | added | y2k | Concerning your last boulet point, perhaps 100+ could be enought. See @elonmusk 1 juil. 2021 tweet "Once you have rapidly reusable rockets of sufficient size to carry >100 tons of payload, it is not clear that cost per ton to orbit/moon/Mars improves with a larger rocket. Aircraft, for example, have moved away from 747/A380 to 777, which has ~100 tons of payload." | |
| Apr 20, 2021 at 18:56 | history | answered | Slarty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |