Re: Super-heavy lift reusable launcher

I didn't see before, Martha's question about energy and water vapor.
Good points.

1.2 million tons of hydrogen and oxygen burned in the launch of the
super-heavy I've described here releases a total of 171.6 million
gigajoules of energy and produces 1.2 million kiloliters of water.

This volume of water is equivalent to 1/1,000th of an inch of rainfall
over 1800 square miles. Since the ground track where most of the
water vapor is released is over 180 miles long, a plume that spread
only 5 miles on each side of this ground track would cover 1800 square
miles and as a consequence would add 1/1000th of an inch of water to
the atmosphere. Of course if the atmosphere was ready to rain, adding
a small quantity could push it over into a rainfall condition soon
after a launch, if it was going to rain anyway. So,this might be
noted by some.

In terms of total energy, humanity uses 28.3 billion barrels of oil
each year. Each barrel of oil contains approximately 6.1 gigajoule on
average. That's a total of 172.6 billion gigajoules of energy. This
is over 1,000x the amount used by humanity. Two flights per week of
these vehicles constitute 10% of all energy currently used by
humanity, yet such flights I believe would transform life on Earth.

The hydrogen and oxygen propellant is made from water drawn from the
ocean. The water is desalinated, decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen,
and the gases sent by pipeline to the launch center, where it is
stored in liquid form until needed.

171.6 million gigajoules x 2 launches per week divided by the numbrer
of seconds in a week (606,876) implies an average load of 565
Gigawatts of electrical capacity. The elelctrolytic processes I use
are around 72% efficient, so actual average load is 800 GW.when
pumping, liquefaction and desal energies are added into the
total.

Using unassisted solar panels to provide this energy requires that 4.1
trillion watts of solar panels be installed and operating. This
requires a total area of 23,100 sq km. I have options on over 250,000
sq km of mine lands in the USA today and have a program to acquire
more.

Solar panels assisted by bandgap matched infrared laser beams from a
power satellite in space, reduce the required solar panel installation
from 4.1 trillion watts peak to 800 billion watts peak. Furthermore,
because of the improved energy density, total area is reduced to 1,834
sq km. Four power satellites are required to augment this much
power.

23,100 sq km of solar panels augmented by 48 power satellites increase
their output of hydrogen from 126 million tons per year to 1.57
billion tons per year. 900 million tons is enough to displace 5.5
billion tons of coal - and adding 570 million tons to that total is
enough to make 38.5 billion barrels of liquid fuels with that coal,
more liquid fuels than we use today - while cutting our carbon
footprint.

The value of today's liquid fuels market exceeds $4 trillion per year.

The order of battle is such that we start with 500 sq km of desert
lands, and work with a small fleet of vehicles 1/5th the size of this
one - .

We grow over time to 2,000 sq km of solar panels in Northern Nevada
and expand out from there.

The vehicle size, fleet size and launch rate are increased along with
panel area, producing not only sufficient power for the launch center,
but also excess hydrogen for export the production of synthetic
fuels..

Power satellites once operational, allow exponential expansion of
launch capacity to approach and eventually exceed this rate..


.

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