Submitted by Proof-Economist-4731 t3_zhmw0u in space
neovb t1_izmzbjv wrote
Yes. With current technology we can reach Mars. And assuming that money wasnt an issue, we could do so pretty easily.
ferrel_hadley t1_izn8nrr wrote
> And assuming that money wasnt an issue
To reiterate one of the most well understood elements of why its expensive "too space", the cost of fuel for a rocket is often 1% or below. Most of the cost comes from the design, capital costs of machinery, land rent etc and other fixed costs such as the labour input for fabrication.
The more you build and launch rockets the cheaper it gets.
So in terms of getting large amounts to other planets, it would be expensive with current launch costs, but could easily be much cheaper by buying large bulk number of launches on launch vehicles optimized for reuse or cheap fabrication rather than to squeeze the maximum mass to orbit out of a vehicle that will launch 100ish times over 20 years.
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