anemazoso
Addon Developer
Was just reading up on the the RD-0120 which is the Russian equivalent for Energia. According to the article Russia achieved the same ISP while making the motor cheaper but at a cost to thrust.
"The RD-0120 achieved nearly identical specific impulse and combustion chamber pressure with reduced complexity and cost, as compared to the SSME, primarily at the expense of lower thrust-to-weight ratio." -Wikipedia
It seems it would have been relatively straight forward to look at the RD-0120 and create a simplified and cheaper RS-24 (SSME). Indeed "Some of the Russian design features, such as the simpler and cheaper channel wall nozzles, were evaluated by Rocketdyne for possible upgrades to the SSME." -Wikipedia.
Yet again more evidence that the former leadership (Horowitz, Griffin and Cook) chose the most expensive architecture. It's really too bad that all the hard working engineers and technicians at NASA have to suffer through all this because of these shortsighted decisions. Of course, Horowitz won't be apologizing because he is too busy enjoying the fat salary that comes with going to work for ATK after he got them billions of $ for the 5-seg.
"The RD-0120 achieved nearly identical specific impulse and combustion chamber pressure with reduced complexity and cost, as compared to the SSME, primarily at the expense of lower thrust-to-weight ratio." -Wikipedia
It seems it would have been relatively straight forward to look at the RD-0120 and create a simplified and cheaper RS-24 (SSME). Indeed "Some of the Russian design features, such as the simpler and cheaper channel wall nozzles, were evaluated by Rocketdyne for possible upgrades to the SSME." -Wikipedia.
Yet again more evidence that the former leadership (Horowitz, Griffin and Cook) chose the most expensive architecture. It's really too bad that all the hard working engineers and technicians at NASA have to suffer through all this because of these shortsighted decisions. Of course, Horowitz won't be apologizing because he is too busy enjoying the fat salary that comes with going to work for ATK after he got them billions of $ for the 5-seg.
