I have had it explained to me that my first attempt to call this a backdoor way to get to an ‘assault shuttle‘ was, at absolute best, horribly optimistic. So be it. Still cool:
The U.S. military command that oversees logistics operations has signed an agreement with SpaceX and XArc to study the use of space launch vehicles to transport supplies in an emergency.
Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, announced the agreement Oct. 7 at a National Defense Transportation Association virtual conference.
“Think about moving the equivalent of a C-17 payload anywhere on the globe in less than an hour,” Lyons said. The C-17 is a very large military cargo plane capable of transporting a 70-ton main battle tank.
Why, yes. Yes, I have thought about the potentialities. …Which are going to remain potentialities, at least until they figure out how to launch missions where it doesn’t take months to plan everything out. Damn you, objective reality. Damn you.
Via Instapundit.
Yes, there would be significant planning involved in setting up a flight. But if you know the most likely destinations, you can plan those out beforehand. And then when you actually need to send something there, you just prep the rocket, load the cargo, and launch it.
Weather permitting, of course.
And since rockets aren’t cheap right now, you’d only do something like this in an emergency.
Theoretically, from a single launch point, with a standardized load, most of the math could be done in advance for most destinations.
At least enough so that computers could have adequate cycles to calibrate during the time it took to load fuel and personnel.
I’m sure there are any number of fiddly bits to fine tune. From seasonal variation in the height of the atmosphere, to the position of the moon, to if the pilot is retaining water. But most of the major variables shouldn’t change much.