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[deleted] t1_iztlkax wrote

How much cheaper is cheaper? I didn’t see an answer in the article. Would this make it feasible to start mining on the moon? Assembling rockets for deeper space missions?

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lughnasadh OP t1_izub4ug wrote

>>How much cheaper is cheaper?

If they were trying to do this in 3 days like the Apollo missions, then doing it this way is a fraction of the cost. The issue is that a traditional Hohmann transfer orbit you need to use fuel to both accelerate the craft and deaccelerate it at the other end. This requires you to carry several times the payload weight in propellant.

By comparison Hakuto-R M1 needs only a tiny amount of propellant from ion thrusters, as the Sun's gravity is doing almost all the work.

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