New answers tagged design
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The Dynetics Human Landing System proposal has its fuel tanks and engines at either side of the cabin.
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Noting how practical limitations is the question, not physical limitations, the most serious one appears to be lack of large payloads.
While many super heavy launchers have been conceptualised, designed, or even built, what ultimately sets a limit is that nobody needs payloads that large.
The ambition and budget to land humans on the Moon caused a temporary ...
answered Jan 15 at 11:22
SE - stop firing the good guys
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Well there is no theoretical limit it just gets progressively harder. I doubt we can go much bigger than starship without risking the destruction of the launch pad. There are sea based designs like the sea dragon that can get around that and they are insanely massive. There comes a point where we just dont have the infrastructure and manufacturing ...
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If we enlarge a big rocket by a scale factor of two for all diameters and heights what will happen? All area will increase by a factor of four and all volumes and weights increase by a factor of eight. For eight times the mass we need eight times the thrust.
But if we take the same reliable rocket engines as before and don't build, test and debug larger ...
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Foreword: This is generally considered a difficult proposition, and books have been written on the subject. This "technology" could also fall under ITAR, so that's why there was some hesitation in answering your question at first. The consensus in the model rocket community seems to be as long as the goal is straight up, and not towards a target, ...
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UK guided missiles historically tended to use a "twist and pitch" scheme, which only requires two steerable fins. The vehicle rolls to the correct angle and varies in pitch.
It might be worth looking into that as it may require less weight for the actuators, and it may be conceptually easier to understand.
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Here's my view - I'd welcome further thoughts on anything I've got wrong.
Design practice
Choices in thermal design have to pay attention to how well known the material properties are. e.g. better to choose a well known, or stable, parameter rather than one whose nominal properties are just right.
I wouldn't be so bold as to state this is the criteria ...
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