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

[Zan Lynx]

David Scheidt wrote:
> On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 12:10 PM, Zan Lynx <zlynx at acm.org> wrote:
>> Onno Meyer wrote:
>>
>>> There are also per-trip costs for the drop pods (retrieval, for one). I
>>> can't give you the exact figure, which probably depends on local conditions,
>>> but the order-of-magnitude should give an indication that disposables are
>>> not cost-efficient. Say the water for the shuttle is as expensive as the tug
>>> for the pod, and the maintenance for each flight is 2.5% of sticker price,
>>> and the shuttle pays for itself after 40 flights, not 20. Both
>>> trivial numbers for a technology that is as mature as jet airliners are
>>> today.
>> All right, so drop pods are a bad idea.
>> But don't forget to account for the runway repair costs over time as well.
> 
> Runway is just concrete.  Concrete is expensive in the modern world,
> because it's got a huge amount of embodied energy.  (Cement, the major
> cost component in concrete, is basically dehydrated limestone.  It
> takes something on the order of 5 GJ per tonne to make.)  But at TL10,
> energy is cheap.  Really, really, really cheap.  Probably not quite
> "too cheap to meter", but pretty close.
> 
> 

Even in the current modern world, manpower is usually the biggest cost.

So it isn't the concrete you have to worry about, it is the 
union-mandated six person minimum team to supervise the concrete repair 
bots. :D

-- 
Zan Lynx
zlynx at acm.org

"Knowledge is Power.  Power Corrupts.  Study Hard.  Be Evil."