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

Square–cube law most things don’t scale. think of a cube of steel a 10″x10″x10″=1,000 cubic inches it would weigh 283.3lbs A cube of 100″x100″x100″ weighs 283,300lbs and a cube of 1000″x1000″x1000″ weighs 283,000,000lbs. stresses on the Rockets are different depending on size because the surface area isn’t proportionate to the volume. scaling it up or down wouldn’t make an equivalent but an entirely different rocket,