Eli5: “Why do spacecraft keep exploding, when we figured out to make them work ages ago?”

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I know its literally rocket science and a lot of very complex systems need to work together, but shouldnt we be able to iterate on a working formular?

In: Engineering

41 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

For the same reason we don’t have a cure for cancer: just because you understand the big topic doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know about that topic. Cancer isn’t one disease, it’s hundreds that we lump together because they all short-circuit a tissue or cell type and eventually kill you. Being able to “cure” one kind of cancer might give hints about others, but it doesn’t cure them too. Similarly, making one rocket work doesn’t mean every rocket will magically work, especially ones that basically have nothing in common with it.

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