Why do some things cost so much to make?

Question

like space ships, satalites, and military armor?

Answer 1

for one, people tend to like to get paid when they get up at 4 in the morning and dont get home until 8 at night.   And, would you want to fly to space in a $40,000 space bucket, or wear body armor into battle that was made in mexico?

Answer 2

-would YOU want to be launched into space in a tin can?

-would you want something protecting you from bullets and bombs to be made "cheaply"



-and what do you expect when you have something that you send to space and it revolves around the world while taking pictures that can clearly show us what is on earth.... a 6 mp digital camera costs like150, and it looks like a poloroid compared to a satelite

Answer 3

So that certain people could hold the dominance over them, it would be interesting if everybody had one!

Answer 4

There are many reasons.  Let's say you are contracted to make a part for the Space Shuttle.  Each shuttle requires two of these widgets.  Total number of shuttles is six.  All of your setup time needs to be divided into six widgets.  If you contract with a car company to make a widget, you can divide up your setup time into say 100,000 units.  Economy of scale.  Another reason for the costs.  One shop I worked at machined parts for the brakes on the F-15 and F/A-18 fighters.  Parts were made of Titanium.  Each part was identified with a serial number.  Each part was accompanied by a folder about an inch thick.  Everything that was done to the each part was documented.  We could tell which heat of titanium was used in each part.  All this inspection and documentation just adds to the cost.  I watched one of our machines slowly making a cut.  My Boss commented he would gladly machine Titanium instead of Aluminum.  Despite the apparent slowness of metal removal in the Titanium, he was making money.  Very little stress on the machines.  He said his machines needed to run "wide open" to make money machining Aluminum.  His equipment would wear out faster.  Interesting comment.

We also machined a part used in jet engine exhaust nozzles.  The engine parts were made of a high temperature alloy called Inconel.  I can only imagine how much the raw material cost.  Then there were the added machining costs due to the difficulty of cutting the material.  This is just my very small exposure to Military and Aviation manufacturing.  Look at the costs of a race car.  Anything that is made for extreme usage will always cost more.  People's lives are on the line and depend on this equipment working as designed.

Answer 5

because most of it is being done for the first time, it is very complex, is completely custom made by highly educated people in their field, they use revolutionary materials that are expensive to produce and go through rigorous testing to ensure quality, the list goes on.

Answer 6

ONE reason is suppliers always charge the Gov. ten times as much as normal. Do you remember the famous $80. hammer?

The military was paying $80. for the same hammer you and I could buy for $8.

Then, there is the tremendous amount of engineering design, research and development that goes into things like you mentioned.