Consider: if SpaceX's plans for fully reusable launch vehicles come to fruition then we may see a day where it is possible to launch the mass of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier plus 20,000 people into orbit every year for around the same cost as the Shuttle program.
Think on that a while. Think what it would mean even to only partially succeed at those goals, even by a wide margin.
Could you clarify the numbers here? I thought it would be interesting to compare this to the cost of constructing a Nimitz-class carrier here on earth, which seems to be around 5 billion USD.
Er, what needs clarifying? And why would you compare the cost of constructing an aircraft carrier to the cost of launching its equivalent mass? He wasn't speaking of any particular property of a Nimitz carrier other than its mass, and the cost of constructing military and civilian vehicles is not comparable.
The exact costs. I was wondering how much it will hypothetically cost to launch that mass to orbit, in order to compare that number to the cost of the complexity of an aircraft carrier.
It's not really a useful comparison, I know, just thought I might get a kick out of it.
Right now (2012 launch price) it would cost about $500 billion to launch the equivalent mass with Falcon 9s. They expect to cut the current cost in half, and with a very high launch rate Musk has said it could be 1/10th, but the required launch rate may not be achievable.
The entire shuttle program cost around $200 billion in 2010 dollars.
Think on that a while. Think what it would mean even to only partially succeed at those goals, even by a wide margin.