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#1 2004-09-03 17:00:02
- BWhite
- Member
- From: Chicago, Illinois
- Registered: 2004-06-16
- Posts: 2,635
Re: Dumb question time - A little help, please?
Can anyone point me towards a link that documents the approximate cost of an RL-10 rocket engine (actually the RL-10b with carbon-carbon) or the RL-60?
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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#2 2004-09-04 01:18:15
- MarsDog
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- From: vancouver canada
- Registered: 2004-03-24
- Posts: 852
Re: Dumb question time - A little help, please?
http://www.pratt-whitney.com/pr_041101.asp]RL-60 not till 2005
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/by … .PDF]RL-10 engines cost about $2.5 million each.
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#3 2004-09-04 09:20:28
- BWhite
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- From: Chicago, Illinois
- Registered: 2004-06-16
- Posts: 2,635
Re: Dumb question time - A little help, please?
Thanks, MarsDog. 
RL-10 quote:
[R]elatively simple RL-10 engines cost about $2.5 million each. Gas turbine helicopter engines contain approximately the same number of parts, and are of the same complexity, but are made on assembly lines at a rate of several thousand a year. Those engines sell for $80,000. "When you are building in lots of tens, you're basically hand building these engines and they are bound to be expensive."
http://www.rocketmanblog.com/2004/06/op … ]Rocketman blog on labor costs.
How do we lower labor costs? Build in volume.
Therefore, if we want low launch costs we need high flight rates and nothing will require higher flight rates for supplies and logistics than a permanent colony.
= = =
Elsewhere I have mentioned using 5 segment Thiokol SRBs with 2 RL-10s for an upper stage to throw uncrewed cargo to Mars (or the Moon).
Fly 2 rockets a week (100 per year) and you need 200 RL-10s and 500 Thiokol solid segments per year. With assembly line production this new rocket (fabricated from 5 segment SRBs and RL-10s) per unit production costs should fall well below $20 million each, maybe much less. (Remember the $2.5 million versus $80,000 figure quoted above.)
40,000 pounds to LEO for $20 million is $500 per pound.
Thiokol RSRMs have 192,000 pounds of structural weight (not fuel) and were built with 1970s & 1960s materials. Use high perforance plastics in appropriate locations and the 192,000 pound figure can be lowered.
Lower it by 15% and 40K pounds to LEO becomes 65K to LEO for $20 million or less.
No fancy new science. Just the cost benefits from design improvements justified by volume.
= = =
Demand? 100 SRB+RL10 at $20 million each totals $2 billion per year but throws 4 million pounds to LEO. 6 million pounds if lighter weight SRBs can be built.
Can lunar oxygen ever be delivered for less than that?
= = =
What would I send to a Mars colony?
Lots and lots of http://www.miraclegro.com/]Miracle-Gro. :;):
Mix with Mars mined water and grow plants with Mars CO2.
Compost the plant waste. Combine with incinerated human waste and more Miracle-Gro and start a nitrogen cycle. Add Mars water and CO2 as needed.
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