XPost: sci.astro, sci.physics, sci.space.policy   
   From: droleary@2017usenet1.subsume.com   
      
   For your reference, records indicate that   
   Jeff Findley  wrote:   
      
   > High altitude balloon launch is a tad risky and only gains you a bit of   
   > altitude and zero velocity.  Not worth the complexity and cost, IMHO.   
      
   Like I said, it might not *currently* be viable, but as an alternative   
   technology it brings new sets of trade-offs to the table such that a few   
   tweaks here and there might make it viable for certain kinds of launches   
   (e.g., “bulky” items that are hard to make aerodynamically efficient   
   benefit from starting at the highest possible altitude).   
      
   > BFR/BFS is planned to be "zero waste" from the very beginning.  Fully   
   > reusable TSTO with "gas and go" like operations.   
      
   But that’s not the true “zero waste” I was talking about.  Any resources   
   that you’re sending up *and* down, along with any fuels you burn to do it   
   safely, is a waste.  It may be a necessary waste for the current launch   
   technologies, so it’s good to minimize it, but I still say it’s a good   
   idea to think about ways to shoot stuff into space that doesn’t involve a   
   lot of heavy stuff coming back to Earth.   
      
   > Also don't count out Blue Origin.  They're off to a slow start, but have   
   > a very reliable funding source in Jeff Bezos ($1 billion a year).   
      
   I’m not counting them out, but when the topic is cost/efficiency, the   
   basic question is still how much energy is being expended to get each   
   kg into orbit.  So long as the idea is still to send a lot of   
   supporting (non-fuel) heavy stuff up only to have most of it come back   
   down, there are wastes that a new technology can come in and improve   
   upon.   
      
   > Besides, how you going to get those space elevator bits into orbit?   
   > That's right, conventional (hopefully reusable) launch vehicles.   
      
   Hope for bigger things.  I fully believe that, for a society to be   
   advanced enough to make a space elevator project realistic, it’s value   
   would be more incremental than revolutionary.  Rockets are the best we   
   have right now, but we’re stuffed if that’s the best we can do.   
      
   --   
   "Also . . . I can kill you with my brain."   
   River Tam, Trash, Firefly   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)