Sea Dragon
The 1962 Sea Dragon was a project to construct a launcher with a payload of more than 500 tons. To date, it is the largest rocket that has ever been designed.
The size of the rocket means that it is built in a shipyard and then towed to the launch site in a horizontal position on a pontoon . Once there, the ballast chambers of the pontoon are flooded so that the rocket now assumes the starting position vertically in the water.
Since the construction companies Aerojet and Truax assumed a price range of 59 to 620 US dollars per kilogram of payload carried, the project caught the attention of the American space agency NASA . She had the payload costs recalculated by an independent body and received confirmation from Aerojet, but the project was discontinued anyway. Payload costs for the space shuttle were around 18,000 US dollars / kg.
Near the US Air Force Base Vandenberg , the government bought a stretch of coast called Sudden Ranch , where the Sea Dragon should have taken off. Sudden Ranch is almost ideally located: it is near shipyards, and south of Sudden Ranch is only ocean, so no populated area. This is of great benefit when launching into a polar orbit.
main features
| Sea Dragon | comparison | |
|---|---|---|
| Height: | 150 to 168 m | Saturn V : 110 m 1 |
| Diameter: 2 | 23 m | Saturn V: 13 m |
| Payload: | 450 to 550 t 3 | Saturn V: 120 t 4 Space Shuttle : max. 29.5 t |
| Drive: | ||
| 1st stage: | 1 engine, RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen | |
| 2nd stage: | 1 engine, liquid hydrogen , liquid oxygen | |
| Start-up costs: | $ 300 million | Space Shuttle: $ 1.5 billion |
- with payload (lunar module at the top)
- at the base
- low earth orbit (LEO)
- low earth orbit; the payload that could be brought to the moon was much lower
- Monetary value from 1962, see inflation
Construction
Individual engines at each stage have been favored in place of multiple engines, which are more difficult to handle. To save on fuel pumps , the fuel should be under high pressure - which requires thick-walled fuel tanks. In view of the size of the rocket, the thickness of the tank wall is of secondary importance, since the ratio of the empty weight of the tank to the fuel weight is anyway smaller than with conventional smaller launchers.
Applications
The Sea Dragon's role, had it ever been built, would have been defined by its 550-ton payload. With such a capacity
- transport complete lunar or planetary bases, which would avoid lengthy and costly construction work at the destination.
- Bring space shuttles into space that are large enough to offer passengers more comfort. Employment opportunities in work and leisure as well as fulfilling social roles would be a major problem on multi-year trips.
Sources and web links
- Sea Dragon in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Study of Large Sea-Launch Space Vehicle, Contract NAS8-2599, Space Technology Laboratories, Inc./Aerojet General Corporation Report # 8659-6058-RU-000, Vol. 1 - Design, January 1963.
- ↑ Sea Dragon in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- ↑ Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Space Shuttle Costs: 1971-2011 (English)