The Value-per-Kilogram Ladder
Which products clear the cost of making and returning them from orbit, and by how much?
Chapter summary
ranked by value per kilogram, products fall on a ladder from tens of millions of dollars per kilogram (biologic drugs at list prices, specialist fibre, implant films) down to dollars per kilogram (structural metals).
Key takeaways
- 1
The capsule cost line, about $2.7 million per usable kilogram on Setcoin's reference, cuts the ladder roughly in the middle.
- 2
Everything above it can bear the trip in principle; everything below it cannot, however large the microgravity benefit.
- 3
Reuse, larger capsules and shared missions move the line down by a factor of two to four, not by orders of magnitude.
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This chapter (1 exhibits, 417 words) is part of Space & aerospace. Space access opens every chapter of all 11 Space reports, with the interactive models, Excel downloads, Ask and named Atlas records.
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