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7:35
Transcript
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In the history of space, one rocket
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stands out as an icon not only at the
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space race but also as the mighty power
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is symbolized, that one rocket which is
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still the tallest, heaviest and most
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powerful ever built was the Saturn V
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and was designed to take men to the moon
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and later launched to the first American
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space station Skylab but if things have
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been a little bit different back in the
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1960s we might have had a different
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rocket to hang on the bedroom walls of
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the space fans of the 70s and 80s. In the
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early 1960s a rocket was designed that
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made the Saturn V looks small by
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comparison. This was called the sea
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dragon a super heavy lift rocket that
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would have been ten times more powerful
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with 80 million pounds of thrust
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compared to the Saturns 7.8 million and
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that was from just one massive engine. It
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was designed to lift a payload of 1,100,000 lbs
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into
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orbit compared to the
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310,000 lbs of a Saturn V. This
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meant but it could have lifted an entire
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space station into low-earth orbit in
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one mission. The rocket bell of this
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single engine would be so large at 75
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feet in diameter that you could fit the
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entire first stage of a Saturn V with
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all five of it's F-1 engines inside with
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room to spare. So what happened to the
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Sea Dragon a why didn't it get built. At
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the time of a design in 1962 it was
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thought by the 1970s, 80s and beyond
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thousands of people would be working in
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space and on the moon even on Mars and
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as such rockets with huge lifting
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capabilities would have been in great
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demand because they would have
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dramatically lower the cost of getting
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materials into space. The Sea Dragon was
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designed by Robert Truax, a US Navy
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Captain and rocket engineer. He was one
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of the pioneers of American rocketry and
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worked on the Thor and Polaris missiles
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amongst others.
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His team debriefed the German rocket
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engineers at the end of World War II
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including Verner von Braun who went on
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to design the Saturn V. Truax believed
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that it was complexity that drove up the
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cost of rockets and not their size. His
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designs for the Sea Dragon made it very
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simple yet very large. The Sea Dragon
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would have been 75 feet in diameter and
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500 feet tall, half the height of the
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Chrysler Building. This type of low-cost
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super heavy rocket is now known as a big
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dumb booster due to its simplistic
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design. Instead of having very
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complicated turbo pump driven engines
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like the Saturn's, his were the simplest
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possible design for a rocket engine. In
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place of having powerful fuel pumps to
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push huge amounts of rocket fuel and
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oxidizer into the engine, he proposed a
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pressure fed system with a separate
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liquid nitrogen tank to pressurize the
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fuel tanks. This would push the fuel into
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the massive combustion chamber. His
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engines were literally not much more
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than the valve to turn on the fuel and
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the huge engine bell. This would make
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them not only much cheaper to
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manufacture but more reliable and much
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easier to refurbish and reuse unlike the
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f-1 engines of a Saturn which were left
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to crash into the sea and be discarded.
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The rocket would be of a two-stage
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design the first stage would lift it to
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a height of 130,000 feet before it
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separated and then fell back into the
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sea using drag bags to slow its impact
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with the water, where it would then be
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recovered for reuse. Although the design
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was much less efficient than a Saturn,
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the overall increase in size made up
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that shortfall so in theory it would be
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much cheaper per pound of payload
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compared to smaller rocket systems even
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ones the size of a Saturn. However there
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are problems in making such a huge
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rocket firstly just transporting the parts
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let alone the fully assembled version.
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This together with the 80 million pounds
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of thrust meant but it could not be launched from land.
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This amount of thrust would have
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destroyed any existing launch pad. It's
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estimated that the noise level at
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takeoff would have been around 165
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decibels, five miles away or the
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equivalent of standing next to a 5,000
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horsepower top fuel dragster at full
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throttle. Then there was the exhaust
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plume this would have been up to one
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mile long. For these reasons the Sea
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Dragon would have been launched at sea, hence the name.
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Not from a floating platform
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but from beneath the water. Now this is
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not as mad as it seems and there have
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been examples of sea launch rockets
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before and after. In 2002 a low-cost sea
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launch rocket delivery system called the
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Aquarius with a very similar design to
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the Sea Dragon but much smaller was
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proposed to deliver consumables in to
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low-earth orbit for supplying things
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like the space station but failed to
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get selected. Then there was the US Navy
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which also did research into floating
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launch rockets and found that the
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take-off or smoother and less stressful
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on the rocket than that of a normal
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land-based takeoff. And if you're
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wondering why the water doesn't put out
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the flames it's because the rocket has
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its own liquid oxygen supply just like
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the Rockets that work in space where
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there is no air and the thrust just
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blows the water out of the engine bell.
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In fact the sea makes an excellent
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launch platform as it's indestructible
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it requires very little in the way of
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support systems which makes it very
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cheap, it also provides excellent shock
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and noise oppression and even allowing
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for a slight swell, the density of water
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helps guide to rock it up in the initial
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moments of lift off till it the exits of
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water. As part of a low-cost build and
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the size of Sea Dragon, it would have
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been built in a shipyard a bit like a
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submarine from commonly used materials
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including aluminium, sheet nickel steel
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and stainless steel for the engine Bell.
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It would have then been floated into
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position and fueled allowing it to sink
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so that just the top was sticking out of
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water and it would have been supported
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by flotation tanks under
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rocket. one idea was to use a nuclear
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aircraft carrier to provide the power to
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electrolyze the sea water to make the
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hydrogen and oxygen rocket fuel, although
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the first stage would have been powered
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by RP1 or Kerosene and oxygen, the second
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stage was powered by hydrogen and oxygen.
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Although smaller scale versions called
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the Sea Bee and the Sea Horse were made to
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prove that they could be launched from
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underwater the project came to an end
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when due to budget cuts NASA's future
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projects branch was closed. But even if
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it had had been built it would have been
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a very short life, it was just too big, there
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just wasn't enough stuff to be lifted
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into space to make the economies of
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scale it promised viable. The technology is
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still as perfectly valid today as it was
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in the 1960s and maybe at some point in
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the future when a large amount of
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equipment is needed to be lifted into
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space economically something of a
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similar scale might find a role once
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more and as always thanks for watching
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and please subscribe, rate and share.
— end of transcript —
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