← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · SummersDay
Thread ID: 12273 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2004-02-12
2004-02-12 02:47 | User Profile
[color=magenta][size=4]WHY DID NASA DEVELOP THE SPACE SHUTTLE WHEN THE SATURN 5 IS SO MUCH BETTER?[/size][/color]
The Space Shuttle has a liftoff thrust of [color=red]6.6 million pounds.[/color]
The Saturn V Boosters have a liftoff thrust of [color=red]7.5 million pounds.[/color]
The Space Shuttle can lift a payload of [color=red]40,000 pounds[/color] into low earth orbit.
The Saturn Five can lift a payload of [color=red]280,000 pounds[/color] into low earth orbit.
Remember, the Saturn V supposedly lifted the 100,000 lb lunar lander and command module (including fuel) all the way to the moon.
Lifting 100,000 lb all the way to the moon, is equivalent to lifting 280,000 pounds into low earth orbit.
So, one Saturn V launch is equivalent to [color=red]SEVEN[/color] Space Shuttle launches. You only have to launch one Saturn V to carry the same payload to low earth orbit (say, in order to build the international space station) as [color=red]SEVEN[/color] Shuttle launches.
Which would be cheaper, researching, developing and using the Space Shuttle, or just using the already researched and developed Saturn V's, each of which can haul [color=red]SEVEN[/color] times as much gear into space as the Space Shuttle.
Something, smells in the land of the US of A. Something, smells real bad,....
Of course, the reason that the Saturn V was quietly forgotten, was that it never preformed as stated. Although it could lift the lunar lander and command module (probably un-fueled, or only partially fueled) into low earth orbit, it was not stable enough to be able to propel its cargo all the way to the moon. If NASA had attempted to correct the problems with the Saturn V it would have become apparent that the rocket could not have sent people to the moon and that the moon-landings were faked.
[color=blue]A quote:[/color]
The shuttle is really the most complicated vehicle ever to orbit the Earth and it is the most expensive. The number of missions, originally predicted to be more than fifty a year, quickly fell to about eight while the operational and development costs rose as quickly as the vehicle leaving the launch pad. [color=red]These costs are often even more expensive than the expendable launch vehicles[/color] (ELVs) that the space shuttle was supposed to supplant as the main road to space.