So, while it costs $35.10 to put a kilogram into LEO, it would cost $166.02 to put it on the surface of the Moon. So what's it cost to put freight on the Moon? Well, it would cost 4.73 times what it would cost to put the cargo in LEO. 1kg of actual cargo, and 3.73kg of fuel to get that cargo to the Moon. More physics and math happens here, but it means that for every kilogram of cargo you want to put on the lunar surface, you have to put 4.73kg of mass into LEO. On the order of an actual hotel stay (and a hell of a lot more awesome).īut you still have to accelerate people up to the cycler and then decelerate them to land on the Moon.Īccording to my research, it takes a total of 5,930m/s of delta-v to get from LEO to the surface of the Moon. But considering how cheap the cost of freight to LEO is, I'm sure it would be small compared to the rest of the trip. I admit I didn't work out the economics of the space hotel or what it would cost for your stay. But with a $35.10/kg cost to LEO, the mass of the hotel wouldn't be too much of a financial burden for whatever company built it. It's hard to say how much that would cost. Also, it creates water as its exhaust, so there are no pollutants. And hydrogen-oxygen fuel has the best specific impulse known. The higher a fuel's specific impulse, the less of it you need to get a ship moving a given velocity. The thing that matters most about rocket fuel is a property called 'specific impulse.' I don't want to bore you with physics (I'm here to bore you with economics) so I'll just say this: specific impulse is a measure of how efficient a rocket fuel is.

Assumption: The commercial space industry will use hydrogen-oxygen fuel So instead of its normal configuration, I'm going with the high-density version that can seat 550 people.Īnd now on to the final bit of guesswork. The 12-minute trip to orbit does not require high-end seating for anyone. This means there's really no need for first class at all. So the spacecraft itself doesn't have to serve as home to the passengers. I'm also assuming this is a trip to a transfer ship or space station. So that's what I'm going with.Īnd for my comparison I'll use, of course, the Boeing 777-300ER. They're pressure vessels, they have life support systems to keep everyone on board alive, they have big heavy engines, pilots, etc. And aircraft are pretty similar to spacecraft in a lot of ways. But, to be clear, I'm talking about dry weight (not including fuel). It often indicates a user profile.Īssumption: A passenger spacecraft would weigh the same as a passenger aircraft capable of carrying the same number of people. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

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