Launch Requirements: Building a Plant in Orbit
How many launches would a gigawatt-scale plant need, how long would it take and what would launch cost?
Chapter summary
hundreds of heavy launches.
Key takeaways
- 1
At Setcoin's reference specific mass of 10 kg per kilowatt, a 2 GW plant weighs about 20,000 tonnes, about 200 Starship-class launches at 100 tonnes each to low orbit, before propellant for raising it to geostationary orbit.
- 2
At 50 launches a year dedicated to one plant, construction would take four years.
- 3
The launch bill at $1,000 per kilogram, with a 2.5 times factor for delivery to geostationary orbit, is about $50 billion, or $25 per watt; at $200 per kilogram, it is about $10 billion.
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