Leaning Rocket of Chica (SN9)

On Saturday, Peter Stickney queried:
On Sat, 12 Dec 2020 22:20:48 -0800, Snidely wrote:

Remember Saturday, when JF Mezei asked plainitively:

I was told here that much of a rocket's strength comes from when it is
pressurized.

The original Atlas had a skin 1/2 the thickness of a (US) dime. I don't
know how well it dealt with being vertical and unpressurized, but at the
very least they must have been able to erect it at the pad before
tanking.

We already know from multiple prototypes that Starships can spend days
at the pad unpressurized, even when it gets quite gusty. I don't know
how thick the skin is compared to the original Atlas, although I think
you could stand such an Atlas inside the ring stacks. And when a ring
stack is pushed around, there isn't much wobble, although the stand its
on does provide some support.

/dps

The dhort answer is, it didn't. When they were kept unpressurized and
horizontal, they were loaded into strongback frams, which served also as
transport ttailers and erectors.
An Atlas on the pad, in a silo or coffin was pressurized from an external
source. Fueling and de-fueling was a delicate balancing act of
maiintaining pressure as the volume in the tanks changed.
Atlas hulls on display were either kept pressurized by external
compressors, or were filled with concrete or something like self-
hardening insulation foam to maintain shape.
Starship is built along more industrial lines, with the expectation that
the square-cube law will make a viable structure, even with more
industrial construction methods.

This clip is not of a Starship being de-pressed.
URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imkdz63agHY


Pete Stickney
From the foothills of the Florida Alps.

Glad to have your contribution! We've missed you!

/dps
can sometimes see Vandenberg launches
from near the tip of Camp Pendleton

--
Maybe C282Y is simply one of the hangers-on, a groupie following a
future guitar god of the human genome: an allele with undiscovered
virtuosity, currently soloing in obscurity in Mom's garage.
Bradley Wertheim, theAtlantic.com, Jan 10 2013