To the editor:

Elon’s “Starship” rocket is the biggest and heaviest ever built. Not American, Russia or China have ever built anything this big and powerful. And, unlike all the others, Elon’s rocket is fully reusable. And cheaper. The Space Shuttle was a partial, imperfect system. The batteries you buy at Price Chopper for your kid’s toy might last say an hour. A rechargeable (reusable) battery might hold charge for say half as long BUT are reusable. They can be re-charged say 500 or 1,000 times. The cost to have one-time-use batteries last that long would be in the tens of thousands of dollars compared to $30 (battery and charger).

The costs/materials to build a one-time missile or suicide drone are expensive. A conventional war head (the “bomb” that explodes) is actually about 1/100th the cost of the whole thing. A return trip will make for a smaller war head (need room for return fuel) but can be used over and over again. This is how a bomber in WWII worked: The B-17 did not carry much (by today’s standards) BUT it could go back out over and over for just the cost of refueling (not taking into account attrition, malfunctions, etc).

“Big deal! So what! How does this affect me?” SLK is not a military airport, but is unique for military reasons. To the Gang Of Four, secondary and tertiary targets might be on the table now.

Just some “dual use” thoughts.

Ira Weinberg

Saranac Lake