Commercial vessels, nearly 3K in number, carried 7.4B tons of cargo in 2007. Consider, that say an Aldebaran flight a month would mean 360K tons of cargo in orbit, or 270K tons to the lunar surface PER ALDEBARAN PER YEAR. Assume 30 of these things flying, and you get 10.8M tons to orbit or 8.1M tons to the lunar surface. Assume 300 Aldebarans in the fleet, and you get 108M tons to orbit or 81M tons to the lunar surface per year. This is several 100x the lift capacity of the imaginary world of 2001: A Space Odyssey What could we do with such a capability? This is the question that a lot of space aficionados stop the analysis at and either go into Star Wars Universe like unlimited fantasy or snap back hard to current NASA limited mindset and experience a quailing of the spirit. But remember, I am not asking you to think, how would YOU get there, I am asking, IF WE WERE ALREADY THERE, how would you use the capability? Well, what do we use massive transport capability for on Earth? Supporting industry, which in the end, supports reinvestment and personal consumption. If a 300 Aldebaran vehicle fleet existed, it would be used for nothing less than the industrialization of the Solar System and the settlement of large numbers of people from Earth to offworld dwellings.

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