Can't help wondering how they're going to create the propellant required to keep a fleet that size in the air.
1500t for Starship and 3400t for the Booster so for easy math call it a round 5K metric tonnes per launch with US->UK conversion, venting and other losses. At a 3.6:1 ratio that's 1087t of CH4 and 3913t O2.
Commercial plants look like they can generate 500t a day of O2. Methane I guess is a bit easier as you a) need less and b) just pump it out the ground, but gonna need plants to purify and liquify the stuff. Struggling to find anything on that online with a cursory search so focusing on O2...
I've seen mention of 25 launches a day to settle Mars, so they'll need to generate 97Kt of O2 per day to feed that which is 195 of those plants at full capacity with no down time. Just a launch a day will need 8. Even assuming no problem paying for all this kit and that you have the land to put it on, you'll need MWs to run it so add in your own power plant.... which need fuelling...
All this not a consideration I've seen factored into the cost per Kg to Mars. Maybe that's why they need the IPO!
All the ^ just some cursory Googling and math when I really should be doing something more productive - awaiting
ORAC to point me at some definitive article somewhere
