The rebirth of Saturn V F-1 engine

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Nasa is analysing the Saturn V main engine to discover his secrets with modern technology, which maybe will help building a modern equivalent.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/16/f-1-moon-rocket

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onosefKTDJQ[/youtube]

That is some sparkler!

Do you realize that conceptually we are exactly where the Chinese of the Tang Dynasty were when they discovered how to make rockets?

What we need is an entirely new kind of reactive propulsions, such as ion drive.

Or maybe even a space-warp technology.

ruveyn

this is awesome. this was the greatest piece of technology man has ever devised. im wondering why the heck are we not using it now?? how did this advanced technology exist 40 years ago but somehow isnt useful today? our modern rockets suck compared to this!

Soviet/Russian engines are genrally better than there western counterparts the Soviet NK-33 engine has unsually high performnce and has one of the highest thrust to weight ratio of any rocket engne. The NK-33 was intended for use on the Soviet N-1 "Super Booster" the Soviet counterpart to the Saturn V. The N-1 used a 30 engines in its first stage unfortunately there was no engine control system which could control 30 engines all at the same time. Another problem was the N1 was incredibly complex and manufacturing flaws and engine control problems caused every test flight to end in failure. The Soviets scrapped there entire moon program including there successful 7K-L1 Zond spacecraft due to fears over radiation killing thier Cosmonauts. And yes NASAs modern rockets suck however Russian launch vehicles don't.

It's amazing what you can do with old technology, especially if you have to save money. They could have completely reinvented the wheel, if they had an unlimited budget.