Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
With 15.6 mps of delta-v, the improved Dawn mission would have made more flexibility than our version, would have been more efficient because it could have used Oberth maneuvers, and would have been more robust because of the spare Control Room and Scientific Comm/Sensor Array.
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It also uses a much larger vehicle. The
second stage is heavier than the Delta II that served as Dawn's launch vehicle. Unless your argument is that we don't have TL9 space
budgets* (we also don't have TL7 space budgets, for that matter), what conceivably could be built is largely irrelevant. You also seem to be comparing this craft's 15.6 mps to Dawn's ~7 mps, but Dawn was already on an Earth escape trajectory when that odometer started ticking.
* And remember that pretty much every spacecraft is a one-off, subject to production cost increases that GURPS Spaceships happily ignores.