Saturn V - inherently expensive or simply no economy of scale?

Scrapping nthe saturn family of launch vehicles STILL haunt us today

we could of had many stations skylab variants, plus the shuttle, a
saturn booster could of been the first stage liquid flyback
booster......

So sad NASA just wanted a spiffy new launcher to spread around the
bucks

Quadibloc wrote:

I looked that one up on Astronautix. Not only was it accepted as being
economical, but it was four times the size of a Saturn V. Clearly an
ideal vehicle for a Mars mission; we should find the company that
designed it, and start building them as soon as possible.

It was designed by the guy who built Evel Knievel's steam-powered
Skycycle that failed to make it over Snake River Canyon - Robert Truax:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Truax

Pat

On 4/02/2010 8:27 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
This semi-SSTO variant of the first stage was pretty interesting also:
http://www.up-ship.com/drawndoc/sdoc63ad.jpg
Sort of a super Atlas ICBM concept.

Hard to see any disposable SSTO or semi-SSTO making economic sense.

Sylvia.

"Sylvia Else" wrote in message
...
On 4/02/2010 8:27 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
This semi-SSTO variant of the first stage was pretty interesting also:
http://www.up-ship.com/drawndoc/sdoc63ad.jpg
Sort of a super Atlas ICBM concept.

Hard to see any disposable SSTO or semi-SSTO making economic sense.

Depends. If you reduce complexity, you reduce cost. Is it enough though?



--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.