Operations and infrastructure are not cheap either. If you require a massive pad, buildings, cranes, transporters, cryogenic infractructure, clean rooms for payloads, areas for hazardous fuel filling... And lots of people on the workforce with very specific skillsets.
And the kicker: launch only a handful of times per year so all that cost must be put into those launches.
Look at a modern airfield gate, all the activity when the plane rolls to it. See all those special vehicles, all the personnel. Some are putting the wheel chocks, some are waving guiding lights, someone connects the electricity line and then come the baggage handlers, the cleaners and the food people. The airplane requires more care on land than things like buses or trains for example. Or look at the people operating the security infrastructure. And the huge buildings out in the distance with the maintenance infrastructure and the workforce.
Think if there was just one flight per day per gate, what would the ticket cost be? Or one per month?
Actually flying used to be more infrastructure and labor intensive like that, and few people could afford it.
The amount of work per passenger mile has to be small for traveling to be possible for the masses. Otherwise we are in an old class society, since only a small elite can be served by a large amount people.
It was only with more efficient streamlined mass operations (as well as more efficient and more reliable aircraft) that flying became available to the common people, and finally even cheap. It's grown about 20 to 100 fold since 1950. Fuel cost is a significant portion of airline expenses by the way...
With rockets we are at an even worse starting point, since they cost roughly as much as an airliner (about a hundred million), yet are used only once.
That is the first point. But like demonstrated, solving the first problem is not enough. If the rocket must be "refurbished" after every flight and thus flies only a few times per year, nothing is gained, since all the other costs make the cost per flight so high that launches stay at their almost unusable price.
Hence real transformational reusable launch vehicles must also be cheap to operate per kilogram to orbit.
We don't yet really know how to do all that.
And the kicker: launch only a handful of times per year so all that cost must be put into those launches.
Look at a modern airfield gate, all the activity when the plane rolls to it. See all those special vehicles, all the personnel. Some are putting the wheel chocks, some are waving guiding lights, someone connects the electricity line and then come the baggage handlers, the cleaners and the food people. The airplane requires more care on land than things like buses or trains for example. Or look at the people operating the security infrastructure. And the huge buildings out in the distance with the maintenance infrastructure and the workforce.
Think if there was just one flight per day per gate, what would the ticket cost be? Or one per month?
Actually flying used to be more infrastructure and labor intensive like that, and few people could afford it.
The amount of work per passenger mile has to be small for traveling to be possible for the masses. Otherwise we are in an old class society, since only a small elite can be served by a large amount people.
It was only with more efficient streamlined mass operations (as well as more efficient and more reliable aircraft) that flying became available to the common people, and finally even cheap. It's grown about 20 to 100 fold since 1950. Fuel cost is a significant portion of airline expenses by the way...
With rockets we are at an even worse starting point, since they cost roughly as much as an airliner (about a hundred million), yet are used only once.
That is the first point. But like demonstrated, solving the first problem is not enough. If the rocket must be "refurbished" after every flight and thus flies only a few times per year, nothing is gained, since all the other costs make the cost per flight so high that launches stay at their almost unusable price. Hence real transformational reusable launch vehicles must also be cheap to operate per kilogram to orbit. We don't yet really know how to do all that.
Sources: http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/sub...
http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2013%2012%20Month%20Docum...
http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities
http://www.airbus.com/presscentre/pressreleases/press-releas...