"To get a kilogram into orbit on the space shuttle costs $54,500. To do the same thing with SpaceX’s newest rocket, the Falcon 9, … 20-fold reduction in cost. … Musk says its cost per kilogram to orbit will be at least 10 times lower than the Falcon 9"https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/03/united-states-returns-space-exploration-elon-musk-spacex-column/5312410002/ …
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200x fall in costs is a good thing. But I'm still not convinced it is enough to kick start a big space economy. Sure maybe there'll be a hotel up there, & armies ready to drop rocks at Earth. But mass-scale asteroid mining & solar energy collection seem iffy anytime soon.
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Replying to @robinhanson
I'd be interested in seeing a graph of cost-per-pound, denominated in hours of labor, from Europe to the New World in 1492- present
12:25 PM - 3 Jun 2020
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