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0 pointsphkahler8y ago0 comments

>> His belief is that a launch of the BFR will actually be cheaper than a launch of a Falcon Heavy, or even a Falcon 9.

I didn't think he actually said it'd be cheaper. If it's not, there will be room for a competitor.

>> There's also the business case for reducing the number of products they are supporting.

That was my take on what he said, and if there's a case for BFR then perhaps it makes sense.

>> Right now, there are not enough customers in the world to justify an investment to replace all Falcons with BFRs. They have an answer to that (however flawed), and that answer is simply "Mars".

Nice thing about a private company. Elon doesn't really have to answer to anyone. Well, actually he's got enough investors that maybe he does, but they all understand his goals are bigger than just making money. BFR will be the ferry to mars and that opens a door. Nobody know what lies behind that door and I think his investors want to know as much as anyone.

0 pointsphkahler8y ago0 comments

>> His belief is that a launch of the BFR will actually be cheaper than a launch of a Falcon Heavy, or even a Falcon 9.

I didn't think he actually said it'd be cheaper. If it's not, there will be room for a competitor.

>> There's also the business case for reducing the number of products they are supporting.

That was my take on what he said, and if there's a case for BFR then perhaps it makes sense.

>> Right now, there are not enough customers in the world to justify an investment to replace all Falcons with BFRs. They have an answer to that (however flawed), and that answer is simply "Mars".

0 comments

5 comments · 4 top-level

readams8y ago· 1 in thread

You just launch a bunch of small payloads at the same time. As long as you have enough customers then the cost per payload could indeed be lower.

bryananderson8y ago

This only works if the payloads are all destined for similar orbits. Which does indeed happen often, since there are a few useful orbits that are used most commonly. But you can’t simply batch all your payloads together.

thinkcontext8y ago

> I didn't think he actually said it'd be cheaper

He absolutely said it would be cheaper, indeed that it was fundamental to the project. Here's slide in his presentation:

https://youtu.be/tdUX3ypDVwI?t=25m9s

ygra8y ago

Well, apart from a first stage that's designed to be re-used more often, there's also a second stage that's designed for re-use (and no fairings that are ditched). So simply by not throwing anything away (except for reaction mass) they have a cost advantage (assuming everything works as planned). And at least the F9 first stage has proven to be considerably cheaper to refurbish than the the Space Shuttle, so I'm confident that they won't fall into the trap of having re-use at a cost that's way above throwing the hardware away after every launch.

valuearb8y ago

Yea, the BFR is designed to be fully re-usable, unlike the partial re-usability of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Which is why Musk believes it will be far cheaper than either.

Now Elon has always been excessively optimistic, but in the long run he's probably right (More likely in BFR2 or BFR3, than first BFR design, in my opinion).

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