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Old 12-23-15, 04:28 PM   #34
NeonSamurai
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Anyhow back on topic...

While landing the first stage is a huge technical achievement, there are some massive problems. Namely the extra mass required to do this feat.

In rocketry the fuel requirements for increased payload is exponential, because the more you gotta carry up the more fuel you need to cover the extra weight and you then need fuel to cover the mass of the extra fuel needed to carry the weight (and fuel to carry that fuel, etc).

So to land a rocket like that you need to carry extra fuel to slow the rocket down and land it, and carry more extra fuel to cover the weight of the extra fuel to land it. plus you also need more fuel for the parts that allow the rocket to land without damaging the engine and so on.

So it all gets to be a massive problem very quickly, particularly once you try to scale up the rocket and its payload capacity. So while this may be more economical for smaller rockets, that economy gets lost very quickly once you start scaling up.
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