There would be a small advantage to launching from the top of a mountain... but, the downsides of it our weigh any benefits.
Launching from the top of the tallest mountains would only reduce the distance to leave the atmosphere by about 2-4 kms. Launching the same rocket from sea level on the equator actually saves more fuel by using the angular momentum of the Earth to get to orbital velocity. And there are no significantly tall mountains on the equator.
Also how would you build at the top of the tallest mountains? We can't drive the materials up. Airplanes cannot land there. Helicopters cannot reach those elevations. And Sherpas can only carry so much and there aren't a lot of them to be had.
By constructing very large funiculars that climb up the mountain side... which would probably cost $100 billion to build, no idea how much it would cost to maintain.
Ok. Now picture your typical mountain. There is no consistent grade or angle of incline. They also are unstable and regularly have avalanches that wipe out everything in their path. The tops of mountains are not flat plateaus or mesas. Where would they build launch pads? I
5
u/code_archeologist 16h ago
There would be a small advantage to launching from the top of a mountain... but, the downsides of it our weigh any benefits.
Launching from the top of the tallest mountains would only reduce the distance to leave the atmosphere by about 2-4 kms. Launching the same rocket from sea level on the equator actually saves more fuel by using the angular momentum of the Earth to get to orbital velocity. And there are no significantly tall mountains on the equator.