Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

YaAbsolyutnoNikto t1_ixz09ih wrote

Reply to comment by danielravennest in Space Elevators Are Less Sci-Fi Than You Think by Sorin61

Whilst I follow what you’re saying, what about induced demand here?

No wonder we launch so few rockets - they are freaking expensive.

If we could bring the costs down, more initiatives would follow.

Not building it because there’s not enough demand is like not building train tracks and trains because “nobody uses them” (no shit, they don’t exist).

24

danielravennest t1_ixz0u5w wrote

Demand for transportation already existed before railroads. It was handled by horses and wagons on land, and sailing ships on the water.

What I am hoping is the SpaceX Starship will induce demand by lowering cost to orbit. Once the demand exists, people will look for ways to satisfy it even cheaper.

5

SIGMA920 t1_ixzzkkw wrote

> What I am hoping is the SpaceX Starship will induce demand by lowering cost to orbit. Once the demand exists, people will look for ways to satisfy it even cheaper.

Isn't it already doing that?

2

4onen t1_iy01vof wrote

The SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are. The SpaceX Starship has yet to successfully fly a stacked configuration.

3

SIGMA920 t1_iy02k9d wrote

Ah, even so costs are going down so that's hopeful.

1

SBBurzmali t1_iy1sglg wrote

Not really, there's lots of talk about prices going down, "One tenth the price by 202X" and all that, but launch prices are still pretty much the same as they have been.

1

lookmeat t1_iy1t7lg wrote

Most rockets make it to LEO, no need for more. We'll probably still have Leo rockets and then use skyhooks to move into upper orbit where moving by rockets. The thing is we rarely need to do this right now. Maybe once Artemis puts a lunar station, and there's incentive to mine or something in the moon, it might make sense to bake a skyhook bridge from LEO into Lunar orbit. But that is going to take a while, we might see it in our lifetime, but not anytime soon.

1