[Space/Spaceships] Getting the velocity/Delta V I want with the tech I want

[adimar]

Originally Posted by scc

Boosters/upper-stage's are just sort of wrong for the setting, there's supposed to be a lot of traffic so it doesn't work out

Originally Posted by scc

I specifically stated in the OP that staging was not really a viable option

The reason I mentioned staging was the reason you wrote for rejecting it.
You stated that staging wouldn't work because there was a lot of traffic. (presumably a cost issue and not the cluttering of outer space).
I suggested a design where the cost of a single use craft would lower shipment costs to less than a million $ per ton.
The notion of reusable being cheaper than single use is not necessarily true.
If the reason for the rejection of staging is not a cost issue, but an aesthetic setting consideration than no probs. But on a purely functional basis...

This holds especially true if shipments are unbalanced (weight wise, i.e. one side sends the other a lot more tonnage than he gets.)
For example earth ships the colonies oxygen and other consumables (a lot of stuff) but gets back an equally valuable cargo that weights only a fraction. (helium-3) .
This means that any spacecraft would make one way full and the other way practically empty. The spacecraft itself isn't worth the cost of refueling it and sending it home for another round trip.

Adi