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

Most things in engineering can’t just be scaled like that. Square cube law, material properties, etc. as others have said. You can ask why we don’t just dye cast cars from zinc like scaled Matchbox cars? Those little toy cars can survive crashes at scaled speeds of hundreds of miles an hour without a dent. Or why don’t we make airliners out of paper if paper planes work so well and are so cheap? But in those cases you understand that it doesn’t work like that.