Re: SPACE: How hard IS it to get off Earth?

From: Lee March (cyberlee@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Nov 22 1999 - 02:53:25 MST


ronkean@juno.com wrote:

> used. But still, it would probably be cheaper for a nuclear powered
> surface ship to store fresh water obtained from on-shore sources than it
> would be to make fresh water from seawater.

> Ron Kean

Ron,

I beleive that all surface ships of any size make fresh from sea water
even given that the cost of energy can be quite high. Even my boat can
make a couple thousand gallons a day with its reverse osmosis system.

This is done because even though shore water would be nearly free, the
space to store it would be incredibly expensive. A 100 footer works out
to about 15,000 dollars a liner foot, and/or about 35 dollars per cubic
foot to purchase so every cubic foot is valued much to highly to make it
a large water tank. Then the energy required to move 10 or 15 tones of
water along with the craft would add up quickly as a continuing cost
factor.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Lee



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