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  • Total Weight Estimate
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• Budget and Timeline
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TOTAL WEIGHT ESTIMATE
Given the figures in “Time of Flight,” we can estimate the total mass of the craft leaving the solar system.

Mass of the VASIMR engine – 300kg
Mass of a typical SP-100 reactor – 1800kg (~1 ton)
Mass of mission equipment (camera, antenna, station-keeping fuel etc.) – 300kg
Total non-fuel mass -- ~2400 kg

Since 87.7% of the mass will need to be fuel, we can calculate that the total weight of the craft will be (rounding up to account for fuel needed to leave the solar system) about 22 tons. At $40 per kilogram for argon gas, this means a total fuel cost of about $702k.