10.4 design, failure of a section does not disrupt colony operations, and repair is a simple process requiring no special equipment except a portable airlock. These conclusions apply to the inspection and repair of the proposed colony design only. Inspection requirements and repair scenarios depend largely on colony design; therefore conclusions on inspection and repair of colonies in general are not possible. X.1.6: Cost: Since the cost of a colony concept depends mostly on the colony design, the research and development required, and the construction schedule, drawing general conclusions on the cost of space colonies is risky. However, the study group reached certain specific conclusions on the proposed design. The direct cost of the MIT Prototype Space Colony is projected at 64.5 billion dollars. Discounting (the 10% compounded surcharge applied by the Office of Management and Budget to aerospa~e programs) adds 83.2 billion dollars to the direct cost, for a total program cost of 147.7 billion dollars. It should be noted that, while the proposed concept is technically feasible using only current technology, this would lead to a program cost many times higher than the above. The study group therefore assumed two future technologies: the Transport Linear Accelerator to propel materials for the colony from the Moon, and a high-productivity (66 kg/man-workhour) space processing facility to refine lunar rock into usable metals. The cost estimates above rest on the assumed successful development of these technologies. After the cost of discounting, the next largest contribution is from transportation, mostly in Earth-to-low-Earth-orbit costs. While it is difficult to extend specific conclusions to space colonies in general, these two major expenditures point to certain trends, provided that the assumed TLA and space processing ability are available to such colonies. The large contribution by the discounting to the cost of the program (which is only 16 years long) suggests that reducing the time required to make a colony operational may be the most effective way to keep the program cost down. And a
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