If they had chosen the Direct Ascent method to reach the moon, the paper
design for that was the Saturn C-8 with 8 first and second stage engines.
-----Original Message-----
From: Seth Mattinen
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2015 4:58 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - Falcon Heavy
On 2/1/15 1:44 PM, Chuck McCown wrote:
Doesn't it have a main engine thrust greater than Saturn V? (Saturn V
used 5 of them didn't it)?
Saturn V was 7.6 million pounds thrust first stage. The Rocketdyne F-1
was huge. Everything I see about the Falcon Heavy says 3.9 or 3.8
million pounds. So... still not as impressive in terms of raw power. But
the thrust to weight ratio of a Saturn V was something like 1.2 and it
lumbered off the pad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uoVfZpx5dY).
If you consider a similar task of going to the moon: Falcon Heavy will
be able to put 16,000 kg of payload into trans lunar injection. The
Saturn V could launch almost 44,000 kg to the moon. SpaceX has some
conceptual launch vehicles that would top that, but until then the
Saturn V is still the world's most powerful rocket brought to
operational status.
Now, I wasn't born yet back then, but I'm relatively sure that
"economical" wasn't the primary driving force during the space race.
~Seth
