Post by Shelby on Aug 23, 2022 22:27:14 GMT -8
I stumbled across a pair of articles that I really enjoyed. And they have nifty graphics to help put things in perspective. One shows every mission to Mars, and how it fared. The other shows the cost of launching something into space, over time.
Finding that second article was the result of a review I read about the works of author Poul Anderson. The reviewer remarked that Anderson imagined space trade could be cheaper than manufacturing something on another planet. Then the reviewer commented that Anderson could not have known how expensive it is to launch something into space.
That offhand comment miffs me. OK, so I found that article and read what they spend. But money is an artificial concept. If governments decide that we're doing space flight, then we do it. We can hand-wave the "cost" for something this important. We just decide to do it. So there.
Anyway, no one ever listens to me, but I remain adamant. In any case, take a look at these two articles.
Mars Missions
The Cost of a Launch
Finding that second article was the result of a review I read about the works of author Poul Anderson. The reviewer remarked that Anderson imagined space trade could be cheaper than manufacturing something on another planet. Then the reviewer commented that Anderson could not have known how expensive it is to launch something into space.
That offhand comment miffs me. OK, so I found that article and read what they spend. But money is an artificial concept. If governments decide that we're doing space flight, then we do it. We can hand-wave the "cost" for something this important. We just decide to do it. So there.
Anyway, no one ever listens to me, but I remain adamant. In any case, take a look at these two articles.
Mars Missions
The Cost of a Launch