Getting to space is such a monumental engineering challenge. Just think of the problem of getting a rocket to orbit. I’m not an engineer, so I’m just going to make up numbers. The energy required to get a 1,000 kg payload into space is something like the energy potential in 2,000 kg of fuel. Well, now that the fuel is in the rocket, you have a 3,000 kg rocket but only 2,000 kg of fuel. So you now need 4,000 kg of fuel….which would then make your rocket weigh 5,000 kg. This frustrating back-and-forth is why fuel makes up something like 90% of a rocket’s mass.
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The Economic Innovations Behind Space Travel
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Getting to space is such a monumental engineering challenge. Just think of the problem of getting a rocket to orbit. I’m not an engineer, so I’m just going to make up numbers. The energy required to get a 1,000 kg payload into space is something like the energy potential in 2,000 kg of fuel. Well, now that the fuel is in the rocket, you have a 3,000 kg rocket but only 2,000 kg of fuel. So you now need 4,000 kg of fuel….which would then make your rocket weigh 5,000 kg. This frustrating back-and-forth is why fuel makes up something like 90% of a rocket’s mass.