Reduce launch costs to hundreds of dollars per pound. No difference between a spacecraft and commercial airliner Spacecraft. So safe that an escape system is not necessary. Advanced propulsion, including lasers, electric, antimatter and plasma. The majority of weight carried aboard any current spacecraft is the propellant and oxidizer needed to lift the craft up and out of Earth's atmosphere.
Less weight means more payload or boosting the same payload into a higher orbit.
Air-breathing rockets suck in oxygen from the atmosphere and therefore do not need to carry oxidizer. At liftoff, the air-breather rocket engine gets its initial flow of oxygen from specially designed rockets inside the craft's intake ducts. At twice the speed of sound, the rocket switches to atmospheric oxygen to burn the hydrogen fuel propelling the craft. Mars Failures Compton's Successor Past Weeks' News Archives - Archives of past weeks' Daily Selected News Stories. All Rights Reserved.