How much does your space program cost?

[mangekyou-sama]

***I mainly got the idea from that "Biggest Financial Loss" thread by Bigulp. If I am breaking any rule, please do let me know***

Here's the idea. If some rival mega-kompany was to acquire your space program assets (probes, rovers...well, basically everything you've built EXCEPT for the KSC buildings), how much funds would that company have to spend?

Let me start (this is still sort of incomplete):

My Skyhawk series of launch vehicles costs roughly 200-350k each.

The latest version of which is the Skyhawk VI-C (it's third iteration).

Therefore, the series itself costs roughly ^Funds2.7M and that excludes multiple launches per mission.

My Minerva program for example makes use of the Skyhawk VI-A which costs roughly ^Funds330,000 per launch.

Minerva is now on its 4th regular mission to the Mun which means so far, my Minerva program costs ^Funds1.32M.

Another example would be my Diana geo-mapping probes. The probe and launch vehicle costs roughly ^Funds80,000 per launch. I have 3 of those probes sent up which then costs a total of ^Funds240,000.

So using these incomplete values (I haven't taken a full inventory of my space program assets YET), my space program costs ^Funds4.26M.

And that makes me curious, how much does your space program cost?

Edited August 28, 2014 by mangekyou-sama

[Sky_walker]

... someone should make a mod to calculate that automatically.

[Kasuha]

Counting things I have in flight, it's about one million \F. It consists solely of probes, about 40,000 \F each - usually two at a body, one in orbit, one landed.

[Thomas988]

... someone should make a mod to calculate that automatically.

That. So many thats.

[WafflesToo]

You guys make me feel absolutely, positively frugal...

My Mun launchers are about 35k /F each (three launches to date)

I've got three probes operating in Kerbin SOI that cost around 9k /F each

I put five more interplanetary probes up that cost around 11k /F each (their cost was lowered by the developement of a spaceplane at about the time I started launching them)

And there's my space station that costed me a running total of 180k /F to build (plus another ~15k /F for supply runs)

A lander probe sitting on Minmus that was a test-launch for the deep-space probe program at 15k /F (I got lazy and used a rocket instead of my spaceplanes)

A ground base on Minmus that was part of a contract (55k /F)

And a heliocentric space station (also part of a contract) that was launched for 65k /F

74k /F from two spaceplanes that were lost (one during developement and one due to pilot error)

So the cost of the program has been about 600k /F to date.

...no wonder I'm sitting on more than 30M /F worth of liquid assets so far. But you know, these private luxury yachts won't pay for themselves XD

[Red Iron Crown]

Spacecraft are like real estate: Location, location, location. A probe orbiting Jool is worth the same as a similar probe on the pad at KSC if you recover them, but the income you can generate from the Jool probe is likely much higher and the investment to get it to Jool is significant. So I would demand a higher purchase price for the Jool probe than for the one at KSC if some company were buying it.

[aven17]

"Worth" is relative. You can fairly easily price the cost of the physical objects that exist in your system, but the worth of those objects varies. A rover on the Mun with no fuel is only as valuable as the science and transmitting equipment still functioning on it, and that diminishes over time. A fully functional rover sitting on Kerbin is worth less than that same rover sitting on Duna.

On a less subjective note, I don't think rockets built and saved in the VAB should be considered as having value. You haven't paid for them yet, nor do they physically exist, until they are placed on the launch pad.

[WafflesToo]

Spacecraft are like real estate: Location, location, location. A probe orbiting Jool is worth the same as a similar probe on the pad at KSC if you recover them, but the income you can generate from the Jool probe is likely much higher and the investment to get it to Jool is significant. So I would demand a higher purchase price for the Jool probe than for the one at KSC if some company were buying it.

I think you're using the wrong form of the word "worth" based on the OP. A Jool probe certainly has more VALUE than a Minmus probe; but the difference in COST may not be all that much.

I took OP to mean cost, not value. My program COSTED right around 600k /F to operate, but it's VALUE is much higher than that (in both /F income and the work it has been producing).

[SkyRender]

Current Funds in my main Career file are 10,089,494.6 (yeah, I don't know where the trailing .6 comes from either...), and easily grown well beyond that thanks to all of the probes I have out there around literally everything. I've probably spent around 3,000,000 Funds or so on the various launches, so I guess technically it's worth around 13 million. Though again, it's stupidly easy to up that number with those never-ending "transmit science from (body)" contracts.

[nadreck]

... someone should make a mod to calculate that automatically.

Administration building function maybe, I can't imagine administration that doesn't come with a lot of bean counters.

FWIW I have just over 5M funds and at a guestimate have spent about that developing my past missions and current space assets:

Current Assets (As at Day 9 Hour 2 Kerbin 24 hour clock):

Interplanetary course:

Jeb aboard a Duna/Ike mission that will leave nuke transfer stage & tanks in orbit, land on Duna, land on Ike then return to Kerbin probably discarding the transfer stage in interplanetary orbit.

Discarded orange tank & Poodle engine with no fuel but a little RCS and controls on a highly elliptical orbit left behind the Duna/Ike Lander

Low Munar Orbit:

3 nuke landers and a fuel train currently around Mun (a fuel train that are two orange tanks, rcs, and automated control which has been "pulled" back and forth from LKO to LMO 3 times so far by one of the nuke landers along with science modules)

1 nuke tug from the 2nd Munar expedition haven't decided to salvage it yet. It is in a nearly opposite polar orbit to the other assets.

Highly eliptical orbit around Kerbin

1 outbound Minmus contracts fulfilling vehicle with Bob aboard (he was on the previous Minmus mission as well)

2 inbound Minmus vehicles on autopilot from the previous Minmus mission (note they came in on a 3 day orbit, while Bob had made it from Minmus back to Kerbin in less than 24h)

Low Kerbin Orbit:

70% refueled EVE Lander (it used up all its fuel launching to LKO as an SSTO and not using staging)

1 Eve Rover in LKO

1 Tylo Lander (fully fueled and waiting for the rest of a Joolian expedition to get assembled once the Eve Expedition launches)

1 10 orange tank station and a kerbal can, docking system, rcs tanks, framework, about 30% full of fuel

1 S3-14400 tank based 6 LV-N interplanetary stage for the EVE lander (90% full of fuel)

1 S3-14400 tanker heading for the Eve lander (about 60% full of fuel)

1 5 orange tank based boost stage (either puts an almost full orange tank, nuke lander, or other 30t load in orbit as a recoverable booster) or for light payloads like rovers it is SSTO.

And I would disagree that unbuilt ships have no value. Both my Eve Lander and Tylo lander were tested iteratively (and with some cost where tests failed - as Elon Musk says "rockets are tricky") on Kerbin starting with gentle hops to sub-orbital arcs to test landing, structure, etc. So to me, having spent say 500,000 testing the Eve Lander and at least 100,000 on the Tylo one I can now build one of those with the assurance they will work. My reusable rockets had their teething pains too and I figure that the unbuilt versions are still worth something.

[mangekyou-sama]

I'll have to revise the OP. I guess I really meant 'COST' of your space program and not its worth as Wafflestoo pointed out. If you want to appraise your space programs (based on its location, scientific value...oh and did I mention life insurance for your Kerbals?) then please do so.

One more thing is that IMO, ships that are in the VAB that lie 'unbuilt' still count towards the total costs. Suborbital testing, failures (provided you dont revert).

Edited August 28, 2014 by mangekyou-sama

[Red Iron Crown]

I think you're using the wrong form of the word "worth" based on the OP. A Jool probe certainly has more VALUE than a Minmus probe; but the difference in COST may not be all that much.

I took OP to mean cost, not value. My program COSTED right around 600k /F to operate, but it's VALUE is much higher than that (in both /F income and the work it has been producing).

OP mixed up the terms a bit. The question is what would a company have to pay for my space program, a question of worth or value.

Even in terms of cost, a probe around Jool costs more than the exact same probe around Minmus; it cost more to put it there.

Edit: Wow, and if we're counting ships in the VAB, it's going to get really costly.

[aven17]

I'll have to revise the OP. I guess I really meant 'COST' of your space program and not its worth as Wafflestoo pointed out. If you want to appraise your space programs (based on its location, scientific value...oh and did I mention life insurance for your Kerbals?) then please do so.

One more thing is that IMO, ships that are in the VAB that lie 'unbuilt' still count towards the total costs. Suborbital testing, failures (provided you dont revert).

A rocket you launch that explodes is not an asset. At best, it's nothing. At worst, it's a liability. If you want to place value on those previous launches, value your completed contracts and tech tree level. That will provide a quantifiable way to compare value. As for VAB, I could load 500 command modules in 17 different variations and call that 17 assets, I can even launch each one. It still should not be considered an asset. They are basically designs. You can value your designs if you must, but consider that the cost of an engineered home plan is typically less than 0.5% of the total home cost.

[SelectHalfling0]

50k mun vehicle + 35k rescuer + 40k test vehicle + 3M Duna Craft + 60k long range probe.

Dat Much.

[WafflesToo]

OP mixed up the terms a bit. The question is what would a company have to pay for my space program, a question of worth or value.

Even in terms of cost, a probe around Jool costs more than the exact same probe around Minmus; it cost more to put it there.

Not THAT much more, not really. My current science probe cost 10k /F to make and costs right around another 1k /F to put into orbit via a spaceplane. From there it can make it anywhere it wants to between Eve and Duna, maybe even Dres if it caught it just right. To get it to Jool (or beyond) requires an SRB (750 /F inc hardware) plus a second spaceplane flight to loft that into orbit for a total cost of right around 13k /F to put it around Jool vs 11k /F to put it around Minmus... or Ike... or anyplace (energetically) inbetween.

Edit: Wow, and if we're counting ships in the VAB, it's going to get really costly.

Gotta admit, OP did lose me a little there. I don't really understand that one... though I did count crashed hardware in my cost pile. Didn't realize I was at transsonic speed when I tried to violently pull the nose up; = confetti.

EDIT: but I just realized I DID forget the cost of some experiment containers I had to ditch during an emergancy abort two days ago. I don't have the numbers memorized but it was three containers from the Orbital Materials Science pack and a little hardware, I'll just guess it cost me 4k /F between lost hardware and wasted fuel; but at least I saved the aircraft and got it back safely.

Edited August 28, 2014 by WafflesToo

[SRV Ron]

My Mun or Minmus contract explorer;

A simpler one is used to place a orbiting probe to fulfill those data request contracts.

The upper stage alone can achieve Kerbal orbit.

For a Mun landing and return, this more expensive design is used. (Stock parts can be subbed for the KW ones.)

For EVE and Duna contract explorers; (May even make it to the Jool system.)

[ChrisWill]

Well I haven't looked but I'd say ~1-2m funds just using the method you described. However if we take a more realistic approach no more than 250,000f considering spacecraft are a depreciating asset. I mean sure fresh right on the launch pad it's a 100,000f rocket but eventually the science instruments are useless therefore worthless or it runs out of fuel and what good is a craft you can't maneuver. So I have about 200,000-250,000f worth of assets in space.

[TimberWolffe]

considering that I play science mode, I'm not sure of specifics. However all of my launches have scientific equipment and modules that have a mass of between 2.0 - 78, so the rockets used to lift them are quite large. Each launch would cost something like 900,000 - 1.5m /F, and considering I'm coming up on my 25th launch, while taking into account discarded stages and space debris, the total they'd have to spend comes out to around 2.5 million? Of course the mods I have to get more science have some pretty pricey things which doesn't help, but yeah, I cost Kerbin quite a bit every launch.

[bartekkru99]

I don't know but launching single communications atelite costs me about 25k I've got 11 of them right now and I'm going to launch (around the Mun and Minimus) also I'm going to invest in mapping satelites (already 2 on polar orbits.on Kerbin and 4 more to the Mun and Minimus). My LLV MOHO I is pretty cheap and effective launch vehicle (two SRBs from KW and two main stages) I'm not going to list my mods, because there's too many of them...