Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Pondering error

Inspiration Mars ponders launch vehicle. The article makes an error in saying that the Falcon Heavy should be able to launch about 10 metric tons of mass into low-Earth orbit. A rather glaring error since FH should put 53 mt in LEO. What it can do is send 13.6 mt directly to mars. The plan is for an older married couple to go with 5.5 mt of supplies. The Dragon is about 5 mt. This allows their inflatable living room to be up to 3.1 mt minus the mass of the couple. This leaves out the Sundancer which would be over mass by 5.4 mt. Still, 3 mt is quite a bit for a simple inflatable since the Dragon should already have life support for up to seven.

FH: $125m. Dragon: $50m. Living room and supplies: $10m (and I'm being generous.)

Total: $185m (about 40 to 50 superbowl commercials.)

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