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Showing results for tags 'market'.
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Welcome to the Kerbal Space Station Showroom and Market or the KSSSM. Post your Space Stations in the Showroom (add #Showroom to your post) or to the market for download (add #Market to your post). The KSSSM suggests that you post in the Showroom before you post in the Market so it is double the looks. Happy Posting ☺.
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SSTO RLV proponents often argue that once a vehicle with rapid reuse potential exists, it would create the market which would enable it to be cost-effective. Unfortunately, it's doubtful than anyone will bother to build or design such a craft unless the market for rapid small-payload LEO launch already exists. This creates a chicken and egg problem, where the market won't exist until the launch vehicle does, and the launch vehicle won't exist until the market does. It's possible, however, that a launch vehicle could be designed for a broader market, thus becoming available without requiring the rapid small-payload LEO launch market to exist first. From an economic/investment standpoint, it is much more attractive to build a vehicle which can use an existing market than it is to build a vehicle on the speculation that it will create a nonexistent market. Such a market could potentially be realized in a similar way to how we first got into space: using the same vehicles for suborbital and orbital flights. The US and the USSR both figured out that the gigantic missiles they were planning to use to lob nukes on suborbital trajectories could, when properly staged, be used to boost payloads into orbit. Many orbit-capable vehicles would make excellent hypersonic suborbital transports, suitable for transporting a large payload between any two points on Earth in an extremely short time. With a decent-sized fleet of such vehicles* servicing regular hypersonic transportation around the globe, you would have the support infrastructure necessary to service those same vehicles on orbital flights, either with reduced payloads or with a launch assist stage. The question, then: does such a market exist? Is there a need for large cargo (or, on the other hand, passenger transport) to be whipped around the world in a matter of hours, regularly? Who would pay, and what is the probable market saturation? *Skylon could potentially serve such a role, as it likely has excellent suborbital hypersonic flight capacities. It's not ideal, though, because it requires a great deal of LH2.