Fuel is cheap/rockets are expensive, descent doesn't burn much fuel.
This should allow mass to orbit at 1-10% of current cost.
The big problem to be solve here is firing a rocket while traveling backward at high speed. If they can pull off the Phase 3 test (high speed descent burn), space access is revolutionized (a space business boom):
* "transhab" space hotels (closer than you think, Bigelow already has two test stations in orbit),
* lower cost human trips to mars,
* massive increase in number, size, and speed of exploratory probes,
* communications satellites for everything (Google in the sky).
This should allow mass to orbit at 1-10% of current cost.
The big problem to be solve here is firing a rocket while traveling backward at high speed. If they can pull off the Phase 3 test (high speed descent burn), space access is revolutionized (a space business boom):
* "transhab" space hotels (closer than you think, Bigelow already has two test stations in orbit), * lower cost human trips to mars, * massive increase in number, size, and speed of exploratory probes, * communications satellites for everything (Google in the sky).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper_(rocket)#Test_phase...