Why do we still expect “successful failures” on rocket launches and not just scale up or scale down the same design on successful rocket ships and launch pads to make bigger or smaller ships with more stable structural material?

Question

Why do we still expect “successful failures” on rocket launches and not just scale up or scale down the same design on successful rocket ships and launch pads to make bigger or smaller ships with more stable structural material?

In: 1598

Answer 1

In the simplest of terms, rockets completely consume the capabilities of the materials and designs they consist of.
You can’t scale up a materials melting point, ability to tolerate vibration or compression.
In typical designs that you are more accustomed to, the machine does not stress every aspect of the components. Internal combustion engines are not approaching the melting point of iron, buildings are not right on the edge of crushing their materials . It’s possible to make things bigger and not exceed the capabilities of the materials because you weren’t close to them to start with.