Either that, or we will launch a lot more stuff, 9 tons at a time.
The biggest thing going against it is it's not clear this scheme can drive the costs down enough to double or triple the launched mass per year. There is a limited number of things we can do in space. A significant part of the cost of any single probe is the launch.
If we can reduce launch costs enough (maybe making the booster reusable) and through building a standard probe with pluggable sensors, drive down the building costs, we could have dozens of probes going places we currently can't afford to go. We spend enormous effort in shaving off every single gram from anything that goes to space. If going to space gets cheaper, we can spend a lot less time shaving probes and more time probing.
The biggest thing going against it is it's not clear this scheme can drive the costs down enough to double or triple the launched mass per year. There is a limited number of things we can do in space. A significant part of the cost of any single probe is the launch.
If we can reduce launch costs enough (maybe making the booster reusable) and through building a standard probe with pluggable sensors, drive down the building costs, we could have dozens of probes going places we currently can't afford to go. We spend enormous effort in shaving off every single gram from anything that goes to space. If going to space gets cheaper, we can spend a lot less time shaving probes and more time probing.