Well, I’ve always asked myself why can’t we use some kind of train or catapult to help the rockets to save fuel or to go further. Can anyone explain me why?
In: Engineering
You’re adding more systems than you need, which means you’re adding more individual pieces that can fail.
Further, rockets are kind of constrained in terms of speeds at lower altitudes because the faster you go, the more stress you have on the structure of the rocket caused by passing through the atmosphere at speed. Thus, most rockets will shoot straight up, get out of the thick part of the atmosphere, and then nose-over and throttle up their engines to get up to the sheer speeds needed for orbital velocity.
It’s really just not worth it.
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