NASA Can't Build a Heavy Lift Launcher

I FUCKING HATE THAT MOVIE!!!! IT'S DERIVATIVE BULLSHIT AND NOT ONLY RIPS OFF SUPERMAN FOR PLOT POINTS BUT RIPS OFF JAMES BOND!!!

A more accurate thread title would have been, NASA Won't Build A Heavy Lift Launcher.

and indeed they can't. They couldn't even build a battleship today and they're only 65 years out of date.

Haven't you ever heard

"If it has happened, it must be possible".

Hell, they don't even need to design new Saturn Vs. They have at least two complete ones (and F-1 engines in storage) as "static displays".

Reverse engineer those big bastards!!!

We don't need Wernher Von Braun.

We've got Von Brauns greatest achievement right there to copy if we wanted to.

say what you want about the quality of govt. engineers.

But I bet even todays NASA engineers can copy something that has already been done.


They're not being asked to McGuyver together a warp drive.

We're talking about duplicating FORTY FIVE YEAR OLD tech.

The blueprints still exist on microfiche. The tricky part would be the electronics, a good number of the component makers are long gone, so figuring out the what's what of things would be more trouble than its worth. Much easier, faster, and cheaper to start from scratch. Certainly wouldn't hurt to look over the Saturn Vs for tips, though.

I don't think replacing the electronics would be that big a deal.

One thing 50 years of B-52 bomber upgrades has taught us is that you can always rip out the electronics and upgrade an old airframe.

Remember the current B-52s launch GPS guided weapons and recieve GPS updates.

And the planes themselves were all first flown more than 25 years before the first GPS satellite even saw orbit.

Dayton, upgrading dozens of B-52's is very different than 2 Saturn 5's.

As a practical matter none of the Saturn-5's could be used ever again. They have been sitting, one outside on it's side for decades and the structures would no longer be considered safe.

Building a new heavy lift liquid fuel rocket is child's play and doesn't need Von Braun or anyone else. Just a leader with vision and charisma.

True.

I was just channeling Stephen Baxter's "Titan" for a moment. I loved that novel until Baxter went off the deep end with the political stuff.

One reason I gave it a harsh review at Amazon.com.

Still, the F-1 engines that are the heart of the Saturn V design I've read several were in storage and were in great shape.

Especially since it was estimated that the F-1s could be reused up to 10 times.

Yeah, well, we seem to have run out of leaders with vision and charisma.

The space shuttle orbiter weighs 100 tons.

A rocket that featured the same two solid boosters, external liquid fuel tank and main engines as the shuttle, but not the rest of the orbiter, would be a heavy lift launcher using a minimum of new "stuff" since much of it would already have been used in the shuttle. And since it would use the same engines and boosters as the shuttle, man rating it would be a breeze.

I have often wondered why NASA didn't go with a whole new shuttle derived system. Things like new orbiters made with modern materials and more advanced heatshields like were developed for the X-33. With an updated orbiter and a cargo only variant the shuttle could have actually delivered on some of it's original promises.

We haven't had genuine leadership in quite a number of years.

It would be better if we'd just run out of leaders.