Reuse Economics: Flying the Same Capsule Again
How much would capsule reuse cut the cost per kilogram, and what does it take?
Chapter summary
on Setcoin's reference mission, the spacecraft and capsule account for about $4 million of $8.1 million.
Key takeaways
- 1
If the capsule could fly five times with refurbishment costing a fifth of its build cost each time, and the bus were still expended, hardware cost per mission would fall from $4.0 million to about $3.1 million, and cost per usable kilogram from about $2.7 million to about $2.4 million.
- 2
Reusing the bus as well, by keeping it in orbit and sending only capsules, would cut further.
- 3
Reuse matters, but it does not change the order of magnitude; larger payloads per mission matter more.
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Dose Arithmetic: How Many Capsules Would a Medicine Need?
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