Re: Space Shuttle Grounding....depressing....

Wesley Struebing wrote:

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 04:23:32 +0000 (UTC), dg411@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(Andre Lieven) wrote:


Andrew Swallow (am.swallow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) writes:

Matt Ion wrote: 

<snip>

Or give the orbiter a fourth engine and a bigger fuel tank. 

Given that the SRBs each put out 3,000,000 pounds of thrust, you'd
need to add 6,000,000 pounds of thrust in eliminating the SRBs.

As the SSMEs only put out around 400,000 pounds of thrust each,
you're going to need not one more, but about fifteen of them. Plus,
the starter three.


The SRBs are heavy so the mass trade off could be very interesting. 

Most of that is fuel. Most of any rocket, as lift off, is fuel.


Just a question (I believe someone mentioned the "possibility" in
another post here...)

Didn't the Saturn V have a main stage thrust of right around 7.5
million pounds?

Of course, as pointed out, it was a couple years dead already... 

Even if the blue prints have been lost photographs
still exist.  Museum exhibits may be a little rusty
but they can be measured.

Andrew Swallow

.

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