Thunderf00t

BFR -Earth to Earth: BUSTED! (Patreon)

Published:

2017-10-05 00:11:43

Imported:

2026-06

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SpaceX currently has a launch success rate of ~95%, which to be fair is about the industry standard. However while folks might be willing to roll the dice to see space, no one will take a 1 % chance of dying simply to cut a 12 hour journey to a 1 hour journey.... ESPECIALLY if it costs 100 times more than a luxury flight!

Add in a few little extra details like it will take HOURS to get to the rocket, and off the launch pad at the other end, and the time savings become nominal. This was always the problem with Concorde. On paper it cut the transatlantic journey time from 6 to 3 hours. However once you factored in it would take you a few hours to get to the airport, and a similar time at the other end, all of a sudden it was 10 hour journey time versus 7 hours journey time... plus Concorde was also crazy expensive!

Nonetheless, the press coverage of Elon Musks great idea of using heavy lift rockets for mass transport got very favourable press coverage...... sigh....

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BFR -Earth to Earth: BUSTED!

Elon Musk has a GREAT idea.... why not use a space craft designed for going to mars for transporting people around Earth! Actually, its a profoundly stupid idea on almost every level. Firstly even the best rockets have a lousy track record compared to planes. If only one rocket in a hundred blows up its considered VERY good. Meanwhile if one plane in a million crashes, its considered a poor safety record. Secondly rockets are mind blowingly expensive. You can get an estimate of a ticket on a rocket like this as somewhere between 100 000- 500 000 USD. Its difficult to see that ever being competitive with plane flight which will cost ~1000 USD. Elon Musk however doesnt seem to have a problem saying it will only cost about the same as a plane ticket. -support independent, scientifically literate media like this: https://www.patreon.com/Thunderf00t