[gurps] [VEHICLE] of the week 759 - OHI Automated Heavy Lift Shuttle

[Chuk Goodin]

On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 10:15 AM, Onno Meyer <Onno.Meyer at gmx.de> wrote:

> > How well would disposable heat shields and parachutes work?  Aim them at
> > a shallow body of water for soft landings and pick them up with a ship.
> >   Or drop them onto hard ground if the contents are padded enough or not
> > fragile.
>
> No way a disposable system can compete with this shuttle. The
> shuttle costs $8 per pound of payload. $8 per pound for a new
> shuttle, not per flight.
>
> The parachute would be $0.1 per pound. Say the parachute is a
> quarter of the total cost, and the shuttle would have to last
> a mere 20 flights to pay for itself ...


Are there no per-trip costs for the shuttle? Sure, water and RTGs are cheap,
but not *free*. There's service time, plus even if the water's free,
someone's got to put it in the tanks, they probably want money for that.

-- 
chuk