D
dryson
Guest
With the replacement of the casing that encloses the solid fuel plug would it still be more economical in the long run to ferry up replacement plugs for the engine that could be changed out at the I.S.S. or other dedicated facility versus sending up liquid fuel aboard a heavy lifter vehicle to fuel the craft? With liquid fuel it costs more to use in comparison to the solid fuel plug. Once in space however a new cost bears it ugly head and that is the amount of time that the astronaughts are in space. So which would cost less to replace in space? Cutting all of the bolts off of a SSO type booster unit or would just having a fuel farm seperate from the main facility be cheaper? I would have to go with the SSO Solid Booster fuel for the two reasons. The first reason is safety. Solid fuel takes more energy to ignite than liquid fuel does. So by using a SSo Solid Fuel Booster the changeout facility could be kept closer to the I.S.S. which would keep the expenditure of money used on the spacewalk or vehicle use to a minimum. The second is additional fuel cost. If we are not able to keep the changeout facility close to the I.S.S. or said facility and would have to use a special transfer vehicle to travel to said facility then we are in fact using more money in liquid propellant to refuel the craft that is heading to Mars or the Moon to delivery cargo or crew.