What would the next moon rocket look like?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@Boyo Jim

I heard there was talk of doing a giant upscaling of this puppy.

<SLAPS Boyo Jim with Giant Space Trout>

[The_Vorlon]

Part of the problem for the Stick is it is getting near the top of the VAB.

And it is suffering from weight creep. Adding a sixth segment to the SRB is out–it is at the limits of what the nozzel can take without major design revisions, and there is that dang bending issue to consider too.

Some are kicking around a version of the Ares that drops 4 of the engines on the way up, like Atlas.

It’s interesting times.

[scotandrsn]

@Santos L Halper

It would most likely look two rockets, something like this.

Ah. I was going to ask what happened to their Magnum idea from a decade ago, but the Ares is very similar.

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@The Vorlon

Adding a sixth segment to the SRB is out–it is at the limits of what the nozzel can take without major design revisions, and there is that dang bending issue to consider too.

Can you expand on this? Are you referring to throat erosion at the nozzle, or what are the limits of which you speak?

Stranger

[scotandrsn]

@Johnny L.A.

Well, the Saturn V worked. But where would we get the myriad parts that haven’t been manufactured for decades? Let’s say we build a new moon rocket. Given that the form would necessarily follow function, how different would it look from the Saturn V?

I had heard back in college that the Saturn V plans had been lost, but that turns out ot be a myth, according to this article which spells out some of the other difficulties of design:

Shawcross cautioned that rebuilding a Saturn 5 would require more than good blueprints.

“The problem in recreating the Saturn 5 is not finding the drawings, it is finding vendors who can supply mid-1960’s vintage hardware,” he wrote, "and the fact that the launch pads and vehicle assembly buildings have been converted to space shuttle use, so you have no place to launch from.

“By the time you redesign to accommodate available hardware and re-modify the launch pads, you may as well have started from scratch with a clean sheet design,” he wrote.
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Geoffrey Hughes from the Rotary Rocket Company supported Shawcross’s view.

“There is no point in even contemplating trying to rebuild the Saturn 5,” he said. "Having a complete set of Saturn 5 blueprints would do us no good whatsoever. True, we would still be able to bend the big pieces of metal fairly easily. But they are not the problem.

“The real problem is the hundreds of thousands of other parts, some as apparently insignificant as a bolt or a washer, that are simply not manufactured any more. Everything would have to be redone. So a simple rebuild would be impossible. The only real answer would be to start from scratch and build anew using modern parts and processes. Yet another immense challenge!”