Reply To: Spaceflight?

[Pete Keech]

I’ve been thinking that the FF power cost calculations may be off by a significant amount and should in fact be much lower. All calculations consist of material costs, etc, based on current values, many of which are really energy based (think processing of metals, raw materials & the energy/electricity used). With the factor of 10 reduction in power cost projected now (upon building the first reactor or fleet of reactors), manufacturing will see a significant drop in cost, driving materials costs down for future FF reactors. Within a few generations of reactors, energetically impractical materials separations become feasible, meaning cheap recycling efforts of aging reactors or removing existing materials from landfills, etc, is doable, and the price goes down further…