Why rockets dozens of smaller thrusters instead of one giant one?
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In general, the cost of a device goes down as more of them are made. If you make one big engine, you maximize the cost to develop it. If you make many smaller engines, some of them will be less expensive as efficiencies of scale emerge.
From a technical perspective, machines operate most efficiently over a range of conditions. Making a big engine that is continuously efficient from 0.001% output to 100% output is very, very difficult. Making a small engine that’s pretty efficient from 20% to 100% efficiency is much more achievable. If you have many engines, then using only one is a way to scale down the output.
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