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To: Moonman62
...330 bar on Raptor produces ~225 tons (half a million pounds) of force.
Methane is the best option, beats hydrogen in terms of relative ease of handling. Von Braun wanted 100% cryo for the main engines of the uppermost stages of the Apollo stacks, and they used hydrogen, but the quantities were manageable. Assuming SpaceX nails this down, the big freakin' rocket with all those Raptors will dwarf the payload capacity of the Saturn V -- although each F1 engine produced 1.5 million. :^)

26 posted on 08/20/2020 12:05:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

The F-1 was a 1950’s design, and the chamber pressure was only 70 bar. A more powerful version was developed but not used. From Wiki:

During the 1960s, Rocketdyne undertook uprating development of the F-1 resulting in the new engine specification F-1A. While outwardly very similar to the F-1, the F-1A produced about 20% greater thrust, 1,800,000 lbf (8 MN) in tests, and would have been used on future Saturn V vehicles in the post-Apollo era. However, the Saturn V production line was closed prior to the end of Project Apollo and no F-1A engines ever flew.

There were proposals to use eight F-1 engines on the first stage of the Saturn C-8 and Nova rockets. Numerous proposals have been made from the 1970s and on to develop new expendable boosters based around the F-1 engine design. These include the Saturn-Shuttle, and the Pyrios booster (see below) in 2013. As of 2013, none have proceeded beyond the initial study phase. The Comet HLLV would have used five F-1A engines on the main core and two on each of the boosters.


29 posted on 08/20/2020 2:32:37 PM PDT by Moonman62 (http://www.freerepublic.com/~moonman62/)
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To: SunkenCiv

I think the first stage is planned to use 31 Raptors, so the rocket will be about twice the thrust of the Saturn V, but I expect there will be around a 40% payload penalty because of reusability.

Starship will be the most powerful rocket to fly and the cheapest if it’s successfully developed.


30 posted on 08/20/2020 2:40:06 PM PDT by Moonman62 (http://www.freerepublic.com/~moonman62/)
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