Posted on 11/29/2018 10:47:26 PM PST by BenLurkin
A lot. Computers are much smaller and more capable. Composite materials are much stronger and lighter than the materials available in the 1960s.
Why start from scratch?
The Saturn V was designed to be built with materials and devices available in the 1960s US industrial base. Much of that has been superseded, and no longer exists. Even if we started with a blank CAD file, we would still not be "starting from scratch". The ideas and design principles used in rocket design today have the Saturn V as part of their heritage.
What are "technology designs"? The Saturn V was designed using drafting tables and slide rules. Those "designs" would be worthless anyway in an age when all of that stuff is done by CAD/CAM.
We don't have the Saturn V production tooling anymore; it would have to be rebuilt. That's part of what you typically lose when you shut down a production line.
There are at least two (three?) production Saturn V's in museums. One is in Huntsville and the other is at the Cape. (There may be a third; I'm not sure.) There are also spare parts in storage. They can be reverse-engineered, but why?
There's an article on Ars Technica about a group which reverse-engineered an F-1 engine pulled from storage in order to design a modernized version for the SLS booster. I would suggest you read it.
Cool, they sound like an interesting company.
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