[panton41]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I always assumed Hydrogen's cost was so high in SS, because in reality most easily accessible is locked in water. Getting it out takes energy that has its own added cost.
Traveller has power production that all but eliminates that hidden cost.

For what it's worth most industrial liquid hydrogen in real life comes from natural gas through a process called steam methane reforming. It's also often produced more or less on-site with a fairly short distance between the processing plant and the site that's going to use it. (Most industrial hydrogen is used to make ammonia.)

The real life price of liquid hydrogen (in 2002) was roughly $0.70/kg (roughly $650/ton) if processed on site and between $2.0-3.08/kg ($2,000 to $2,800/ton) if it has to be transported. Considering GURPS uses 2004 dollars and tries to base its prices on real life if at all possible this matches the value in Spaceships. I'd argue a science fiction spaceport probably produces it on site (real life spaceports do) and maybe go with $1,000/ton to represent profit and various fees and taxes, etc.