In one respect it's a little less incredible than it looks
It's a 400 ton payload. A Saturn V could carry a 140 ton payload and a space shuttle could get up to 110.
It's not an awe inspiring order of magnitude heavier, it's meant to be big AND light.
The ITS second stage is launched un fueled, it is put into a parking orbit by the first stage candlestick booster, then re fueled by use of fueling vehicles in orbit.
Yeah, it's mostly empty right?
They could feasibly send it off empty, and then use smaller vessels to fill it up with passengers and supplies afterwards.
Plan is to send it up crewed, fuel it in orbit with a few equally as massive second stages, then send it on its way.
Yeah I know, but no plan survives reality. I'm just concluding that they could feasibly cut a bit of weight from the initial plan still.
The Space Shuttle had a maximum payload capacity of 32 tons, to LEO, although it never exceeded 25 tons, it had no ability leave LEO.
The Saturn V could carry 155 tons to LEO and 53.5 tons out of Earth orbit
Had Von Braun's Saturn V-23(L) ever been built it would have been capable of 290 tons to LEO and 110 tons out of Earth orbit
You left out the 5 inch guns and nuclear missiles.
NUKE THE COMMIES
FUCK EM ALL
Anything's a dildo if you're brave enough.
>assuming we could gather all the necessary materials.
Well there's the rub, isn't it? How do you bootstrap a space mining industry without launching a shitload of stuff up there?
>It should be much more efficient to build ships that are not designed to land at all.
But how do you even get up there, then? How do you get down?
You need a good reusable rocket like this. A big one is more efficient.