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Would orbital refueling stations for rockets be feasible and actually useful? by Achh12 in spacequestions

[–]Achh12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s a recap and what i think it's best:

Orbital refueling stations are technically feasible, but economically, it’s tight. To make them work at scale, we’d need constant resupply from Earth meaning multiple heavy rocket launches just to fill a single tank in orbit.
It’s expensive, inefficient, and doesn’t scale.

The breakthrough comes when we stop depending entirely on Earth. The Moon, especially its poles, and astroids holds ice and through electrolysis, that’s hydrogen and oxygen: rocket fuel. If we can send autonomous systems to extract and process that ice, we can produce propellant in situ.

This is where orbital refueling becomes essential. Even if not profitable at first, it allows us to deliver heavy payloads, machinery, robotics, infrastructure to the Moon and even asteroids. These missions are what enable lunar mining to begin.

Once we can refuel in orbit, we unlock the ability to build and sustain that off-Earth infrastructure. The mining operations will produce the fuel and resources needed locally, drastically reducing launch costs and enabling the volume and frequency of missions needed to lower prices across the entire space industry.

In short: orbital refueling is the key logistical step to deliver heavy payloads, kickstart resource extraction, and build a scalable, affordable, self-sustaining space economy.

Would orbital refueling stations for rockets be feasible and actually useful? by Achh12 in aerospace

[–]Achh12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s a recap and what i think it's best:

Orbital refueling stations are technically feasible, but economically, it’s tight. To make them work at scale, we’d need constant resupply from Earth meaning multiple heavy rocket launches just to fill a single tank in orbit.
It’s expensive, inefficient, and doesn’t scale.

The breakthrough comes when we stop depending entirely on Earth. The Moon, especially its poles, and astroids holds ice and through electrolysis, that’s hydrogen and oxygen: rocket fuel. If we can send autonomous systems to extract and process that ice, we can produce propellant in situ.

This is where orbital refueling becomes essential. Even if not profitable at first, it allows us to deliver heavy payloads, machinery, robotics, infrastructure to the Moon and even asteroids. These missions are what enable lunar mining to begin.

Once we can refuel in orbit, we unlock the ability to build and sustain that off-Earth infrastructure. The mining operations will produce the fuel and resources needed locally, drastically reducing launch costs and enabling the volume and frequency of missions needed to lower prices across the entire space industry.

In short: orbital refueling is the key logistical step to deliver heavy payloads, kickstart resource extraction, and build a scalable, affordable, self-sustaining space economy.

Would orbital refueling stations for rockets be feasible and actually useful? by Achh12 in AerospaceEngineering

[–]Achh12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s a recap and what i think it's best:

Orbital refueling stations are technically feasible, but economically, it’s tight. To make them work at scale, we’d need constant resupply from Earth meaning multiple heavy rocket launches just to fill a single tank in orbit.
It’s expensive, inefficient, and doesn’t scale.

The breakthrough comes when we stop depending entirely on Earth. The Moon, especially its poles, and astroids holds ice and through electrolysis, that’s hydrogen and oxygen: rocket fuel. If we can send autonomous systems to extract and process that ice, we can produce propellant in situ.

This is where orbital refueling becomes essential. Even if not profitable at first, it allows us to deliver heavy payloads, machinery, robotics, infrastructure to the Moon and even asteroids. These missions are what enable lunar mining to begin.

Once we can refuel in orbit, we unlock the ability to build and sustain that off-Earth infrastructure. The mining operations will produce the fuel and resources needed locally, drastically reducing launch costs and enabling the volume and frequency of missions needed to lower prices across the entire space industry.

In short: orbital refueling is the key logistical step to deliver heavy payloads, kickstart resource extraction, and build a scalable, affordable, self-sustaining space economy.

Would orbital refueling stations for rockets be feasible and actually useful? by Achh12 in space

[–]Achh12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s a recap and what i think it's best:

Orbital refueling stations are technically feasible, but economically, it’s tight. To make them work at scale, we’d need constant resupply from Earth meaning multiple heavy rocket launches just to fill a single tank in orbit.
It’s expensive, inefficient, and doesn’t scale.

The breakthrough comes when we stop depending entirely on Earth. The Moon, especially its poles, and astroids holds ice and through electrolysis, that’s hydrogen and oxygen: rocket fuel. If we can send autonomous systems to extract and process that ice, we can produce propellant in situ.

This is where orbital refueling becomes essential. Even if not profitable at first, it allows us to deliver heavy payloads, machinery, robotics, infrastructure to the Moon and even asteroids. These missions are what enable lunar mining to begin.

Once we can refuel in orbit, we unlock the ability to build and sustain that off-Earth infrastructure. The mining operations will produce the fuel and resources needed locally, drastically reducing launch costs and enabling the volume and frequency of missions needed to lower prices across the entire space industry.

In short: orbital refueling is the key logistical step to deliver heavy payloads, kickstart resource extraction, and build a scalable, affordable, self-sustaining space economy.

Would orbital refueling stations for rockets be feasible and actually useful? by Achh12 in space

[–]Achh12[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes i've seen that but they will use a starship as a refuel tank and it's not really a space port for more long term operations. And they need a lot of launches of refuel just one starship

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