A Low-Cost Launch Assistance System for Orbital Launch Vehicles

Table 4

Life-cycle budget of the proposed LAS/LVS system.

Component	Price, k$	Fraction, %
^#LVS rockets	26.6	72.8
LVS aeroshell + attach points, 5 reuses	1.3	3.6
Traction cable, 100 reuses	3.4	9.3
*Balloons, 200 reuses (160 k$/balloon [95])	0.8	2.2
Traction motors cost, 10000 reuses (10 hp/$) [12]	0.17	4.3
Coupling cost, 10000 reuses	0.08
Variable frequency drivers, 10000 reuses	0.08
Line protection equipment, 10000 reuses	0.02
10 km high-power transmission line, 10000 reuses	0.6
Antisagging masts, 10000 reuses	0.4
Blocks cost, 1000 reuses	0.1
3 km light railway for tension adjustment, 10000 reuses	0.1
Technician salary, 2 men for 30 years (10000 launches)	3	8.2
Total cost per launch	36.5	100
Cost per kg of payload to LEO, k$/kg	5.2	—

*Require NASA superpressure high-endurance balloons or equivalent [96, 97].
^#No. calculated using NASA cost model from [98] with 85% learning curve.