If solved
Routine, Affordable Access to Space
Launching a tonne to orbit costs a small fraction of today's price and rockets leave on short notice, so space becomes a place for ordinary industry, science and construction.
Open in the interactive tree →Reuse is routine rather than a headline, and the cost of lifting hardware stops being the main item in a space budget. Debris clearing, assembly in orbit and large tests of space solar power become questions of engineering budgets rather than launch budgets. Satellites no longer have to be built for decades of life because replacing them is cheap.
What it brings
- Affordable removal of old satellites and debris
- Telescopes, stations and factories assembled in orbit from many launches
- Space-based solar power tried at a scale that shows whether it pays
- Cargo for Moon and Mars bases priced like ordinary freight
Prerequisites
- Orbit for Under US$100 per KilogramopenEverything here depends on launch costing a small fraction of today's price.