Re:America has more new spaceships on the way
by fastball on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @08:33AM
(#23390272)
As the other commenter pointed out, the Falcons have some innovation in there. But Starship's has even mroe. It uses SpaceX's new Raptor engines, which are full-flow CH4/LOX engines. No full-flow staged combustion cycle (FFSCC) rocket engine has ever been used to deliver a payload to LEO (or even used in an actual rocket at all, AFAIK). This is somewhat surprising (and indicative of the difficulty of manifesting the design), given that the design has been around since at least the 1960s and has a lot of benefits over other rocket engine designs.
In that regard, FFSCC rocket engines actually remind me of LFTR-type MSRs:
1. been around for decades
2. clear benefits to the design
3. hasn't managed to be used viably
So I would say Starship + Super Heavy is definitely a riskier investment than NASA has made with Falcon.
In that regard, FFSCC rocket engines actually remind me of LFTR-type MSRs:
1. been around for decades
2. clear benefits to the design
3. hasn't managed to be used viably
So I would say Starship + Super Heavy is definitely a riskier investment than NASA has made with Falcon.