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Re:Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle ... by m4rtink on Thursday March 05, 2020 @11:37AM (#22495103)
>I'm not in that area, but I struggle to find an analogue of a large pressurized tank on Earth where mass is the dominant cost factor.

If you stretch the definition of "tank" and "on Earth" then modern pressurized airliner cabins definitely qualify.

Re:Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle ... by dexen on Thursday March 05, 2020 @12:27PM (#22495733)
>modern pressurized airliner cabins

It's a good reference point, even if there are some key differences worth mentioning.

First up, an airliner fuselage is specced for tens of thousands of pressure cycles; needs to sustain the wear & tear, accumulated stress, and distortion. The rocket needs to handle maybe a dozen pressure cycles at most, and it is feasible to only handle one cycle for first few experimental vehicles.

Secondly, the airliner fuselage has much more complex shape, due to conflicting needs for aerodynamics, attachment of wings & control surfaces, etc.. This, together with varying materials and large openings concentrates stresses in key points. The rocket tank is as close to a big dumb uniform pipe as you can get. Even better, a rocket may rely on internal pressure for structural rigidity, while airliner needs to handle depressurization.

Lastly, the Starship is designed to survive re-entry, thus heat resistance is a major concern there; not anymore for an airliner ever since the Concorde SSTO got retired.