[mikewarot]

The cost is likely to fall in the 1%-3% range of that of a C-17. The War Department could buy 100-200 of them for the cost of 2 C-17 Globemaster IIIs.

I would be interested to see if some form of portable, quickly constructed landing pad could be deployed, much like the mats used as runways during WWII.

[modeless]

Geez, I had no idea C-17s cost $200 million each. That's crazy.

[ben_w]

Do they need a landing pad? They have to be capable of landing on unimproved martian or lunar rock, with enough spare capacity for either the fuel for a return flight (from the moon) or a local fuel generator (from Mars).

[m4rtink]

That should work, but it will likely not be able to safely launch again even if you managed to refuel it.

The engine power needed to launch in Earth gravity, even with a small hop fuel load might be too much for engines so close to the ground & with thick atmosphere preventing the exhaust from dissipating.

[mikewarot]

Oh... I forgot about the noise from launch, which is loud enough that echos could damage the vehicle if not damped. Some form of tower to stand off the exhaust would be required.

[ben_w]

Excellent point, that’s automatically easier on Mars and luna.

[wmf]

Cost per what? Per flight?

[mikewarot]

To go 1/2 way around the world, at 590 mph is 21+ hours.

Cost per hour, according to https://nation.time.com/2013/04/02/costly-flight-hours/ is $23.811

So, the one way cost to get a C-17 full of cargo anywhere in the world is about $500,000

1 Million round trip.

I had the cost wrong, I thought it was per vehicle, it's per launch... $2,000,000. If it could fly back, it's only $4,000,000 per round trip.... just 4 times the cost of a C-17 delivery and return.