What is the Cost of a Space Flight?

In today's world, satellites are positioned around the earth and are used effectively in many areas such as GPS, meteorology and communication. 

The issue of communication is of great importance, especially in areas or times when telephone services are limited around the world.

Air Forces, soldiers, unmanned aerial, sea and land vehicles, mountaineers, campers, hunters, miners, ship, aircraft and vehicle tracking systems, which are obliged to use uninterrupted communication, can solve the problems they face thanks to their communication with these satellites in moments, regions or emergencies they need. 

Today, satellite systems are used to track typhoons, tsunamis caused by earthquakes or volcano eruptions, fires and even ash from volcano eruptions, and early warnings are issued to prevent loss of life and property. Again, the communication provided by these satellites is of great importance in cities where people live densely, in the execution of daily communication and internet services, and in earthquakes, floods or other emergencies. 

In the aftermath of the 1999 Gölcük earthquake in Turkey, due to the major damage to power lines and telephone centers in the region, telephones made a great contribution to coordination, information, and to help people reach their loved ones and those under the rubble. 

In the earthquakes in various regions of our country in the following years, many earthquake victims were reached by telephone and rescued. 

In the 5.9-magnitude earthquake in Düzce on November 23, 2022, both the power outage and the internet outage were felt intensely by the people living in the region. 

The countries that have sent satellites into space for various reasons or for TV broadcasts, observation, communication or other purposes are RUSSIA, USA, FRANCE, JAPAN, CHINA, ENGLAND, INDIA, ISRAEL, IRAN and TURKEY. 

These countries also have satellites placed in empty orbits around the Earth for the above-mentioned purposes, either on their own behalf or on behalf of other countries. 

In addition to all these issues, the International Space Station (ISS) program, which is located about 400 km from Earth's orbit, is a joint project created by five participating space agencies. 

They are the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos), the Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). 

The International Space Station has hosted participants continuously for more than 14 years and 240 astronauts from 19 countries have used the station for experiments and tests and continue to use it today. 

If we think about why a joint work, the costs of all the work done in the field of space are very large. 

For example, the installation cost of the International Space Station (ISS) alone is 120 billion dollars. 

Due to the very high cost of space travel, countries that work or will work for research and investigation in test - experiment and other space missions in a zero-gravity environment need to work and act jointly for similar purposes. 

Up to 8 spaceships can be locked to the space station at the same time, including Space X's Dragon spacecraft. 

There is a need to go into space for many reasons such as a manned or unmanned journey to the moon, placing satellites in Earth orbit for reasons such as communication or meteorological investigation or defense, establishing a colony on the planet Mars, sending telescopes into space to study the Universe, etc. 

The satellites prepared on Earth for the above purposes are carried into space by rockets developed by several countries or several companies as a result of the studies carried out since the 1960s. 

These rockets are spacecraft designed to carry the payload, that is, the object that will actually operate in space, from the earth's surface to space in line with the desired destination, distance, orbit and purpose. 

According to the law of Action-Reaction (Newton's 3rd Principle), with the ignition of the fuel in the rocket, the earth creates a reaction against the gravitational force, and the payload in it first goes to the orbit of the earth and then to other planets or mission areas by taking advantage of the gravitational force of the earth. 

They settle in the orbits of the destination and start working again to perform their missions according to their purpose of construction.

In the space flights of the past, any rocket that took its cargo to space was allowed to fall into the oceans on Earth after its work was finished and the rocket could not be used again. 

Space Shuttle, on the other hand, would throw the rockets it used while going into space, and after the end of the mission, the space shuttle it carried would re-enter the atmosphere and return to the world. 

Due to the financial difficulties and the fact that the rockets somehow had problems during the ascent into space, some rockets went out of control or were lost either during launch or in orbit or in places such as the lunar orbit, Mars mission. Those that were able to return to Earth fell into the seas and could not be used again. 

In recent years, in order to prevent the loss of lives of people, astronauts, who have already experienced examples with the loads carried by these rockets, as a result of disastrous accidents, in addition to the rocket studies of countries, private companies have also started rocket development studies. For this purpose, they have achieved serious success in rockets that can go into space and return to earth again and can be used to go into space again.

Elon Musk - USA and his company Space X have worked for years to achieve great success in rocket launches into space and back again. 

On September 28, 2008, Elon Musk, with the Space X company he founded, launched the Falcon 1, the first liquid-fueled rocket financed by the private sector to reach orbit, and on December 9, 2010, launched the Dragon spacecraft into space. Space X successfully put the Dragon rocket into orbit and became the first private sector company to bring this rocket back to Earth.

In the following years, Space X has increased its work in space. On May 25, 2012, Space X sent the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS (International Space Station) and became the first private company to send a vehicle to the space station. 

On December 22, 2015, Space X successfully landed its Falcon 9 spacecraft on Earth. On April 8, 2016, this time successfully landing the spacecraft on a mobile station on water marked the beginning of a new era in space travel. 

Sending a rocket into space, establishing factories and research laboratories for this purpose, and many other activities bring with them a terrible cost for space exploration. 

And not all of these missions are successful. In 2021, a total of 144 rockets were launched into space. There were 133 successful space missions worldwide, 8 of which were manned missions. The remaining 11 space missions were unsuccessful. Out of every 100 missions sent into space, 8 fail.

In 1965, the cost of space exploration, which began with Soyuz and Saturn V rockets to reach Earth orbit, was around $25,000 per kilogram. In the 1970s, this cost increased to 50,000 dollars with the Space Shuttle developed by the USA.

With the further development of the Falcon 1 rockets developed in 2006, and the development of the Falcon 8 and Falcon 9 rockets in the 2010s, the cost of transporting each kilogram sent into space has decreased from 2000 dollars to 1500 dollars. 

It should be noted here that the Falcon Heavy rocket has the capacity to carry 54,000 kilograms of payload into low earth orbit (LEO). 

As the orbit and distance to be reached around the Earth increases, the amount of fuel planned for this mission increases and the payload capacity decreases.

With Elon Musk's Space X company, the cost of launching each kilogram of payload into space has fallen to an estimated $200 these days. 

This was achieved with the development of the Starship rocket developed by Space X. Starship, which can carry people and cargo to Mars, the Moon or any point in the Solar System, has proved this success to the whole world by returning to Earth and landing vertically after fulfilling its mission. 

Today, especially in the US, space flights are carried out at cheaper costs than in the early years of space exploration. 

This situation helps any country that wants to rent a satellite from Space X and send the object it wants into space, just like calling a taxi. As a result of the decrease in the cost of traveling to space and earth orbit, Space X has started to place many communication satellites such as Starlink into earth orbit at the same time. 

Starlink satellites, which are sent into space and orbit in series for reasons such as ensuring uninterrupted communication with the Internet or cell phones, are also pioneering events such as ensuring uninterrupted internet or communication in desired regions.

Today, especially in the Ukraine-Russia war, the use of the internet or communication for civilian or military purposes has been ensured in cities where there is no electricity and internet or where the existing electricity and communication infrastructure has been partially or completely destroyed by bombs.

It heralds the beginning of an era in which future space stations can be used for daily landings and take-offs, and even the ISS station can be used as a hotel for space tourists traveling from Earth to space. The most problematic issue on which all space endeavors are based is cost-effectiveness.

While every fiber optic cable, facility or communication point placed on Earth could become a target of terrorism and war, satellites such as Starlink placed in Earth orbit continue to perform their missions more safely and at a lower cost.

Even if the cost of space travel is low for near-Earth orbits, it increases for Mars and Jupiter missions, especially since the Mars mission takes about 8 months.

Today, some countries have even considered installing a space elevator system to reduce the cost of space travel. They are also conducting research and studies for this purpose.

If you say, "Would it be better for Turkey to travel to the Moon or to conduct experiments in the space station?" If you are not going to establish a colony on the Moon, sending scientists to the International Space Station (ISS) and conducting studies with other countries may be much more beneficial for Turkey and the missions to be carried out in the field of space in the future.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4UIguCf_c

https://rocketcrew.space/blog/future-space-stations

https://levtems.com/uluslararasi-uzay-istasyonu-nedir-astronotlarin-uzaydaki-evi/

https://tua.gov.tr/tr/blog/havacilik-ve-teknoloji/roketler

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-cost-of-space-flight/

https://tr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship