Author Topic: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?  (Read 15276 times)

Offline CEV Now

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What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« on: 04/04/2006 08:32 pm »
After reading another thread about a test stand capable of handling a test for a 'future vehicle' that had 16m lbs of thrust, what was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?

Offline Tap-Sa

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #1 on: 04/04/2006 08:40 pm »
I think that would be Orion.

Offline Jim

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #2 on: 04/04/2006 10:07 pm »
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Tap-Sa - 4/4/2006  3:40 PMI think that would be Orion.

Orion is a nuclear pulse rocket, only for deep space, not for trips to LEO

Offline Jim

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #3 on: 04/04/2006 10:08 pm »
Look at this thread.  there was no need to start a new one

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=581&posts=62

Offline hyper_snyper

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #4 on: 04/04/2006 10:54 pm »
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Jim - 4/4/2006  6:07 PM
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Tap-Sa - 4/4/2006  3:40 PMI think that would be Orion.

Orion is a nuclear pulse rocket, only for deep space, not for trips to LEO

If you're psychotic enough, it could be used for trips to LEO. ;)

Offline simonbp

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #5 on: 04/04/2006 11:15 pm »
It was certainly planned for ground to LEO operations; remember that when it was concieved, there was a nuclear bomb test per week, and pretty much anything could be justified "making sure the Russians don't do it first". Besides, how on earth else could you get something that heavy (it was going to be built by Electric Boat, the nuclear sub people) to orbit?

Simon ;)

Offline CEV Now

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #6 on: 04/05/2006 04:40 am »
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Jim - 4/4/2006  5:08 PM

Look at this thread.  there was no need to start a new one

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=581&posts=62

Actually I feel there was as that thread is about the SDLV and this question is not.

Offline Jackson

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #7 on: 04/05/2006 10:17 am »
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Tap-Sa - 4/4/2006  3:40 PM

I think that would be Orion.

Crikey. That's a beast of a ship, but mainly propulsion and a CEV type crew transport?

Offline publiusr

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #8 on: 04/05/2006 05:57 pm »
There is a book on Orion by Freeman Dyson's son. Saturn V could place 130-140 tons in LEO--or 400 tons to the edge of the atmosphere. There a smaller Orion was to have launched.

The largest Orion concept to take off from the ground could have been 400 meters wide. The larger the craft is--the better the system works.

The largest chemical rockets seriously conceived were AMLLV, Nexus, and Sea Dragon, and one or two more slipping my mind.

Offline sandevd

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #9 on: 04/11/2006 06:41 pm »
The captive firing test stand for the S-1C - Saturn V first stage vehicle -  located in Huntsville, Alabama was designed to test a stage with twice the thrust or approximately 15,000 pounds. Von Braun's post Apollo program was to colonize the moon using a vehicle of this thrust. Don't know if there was a project name assigned, but this would have been the most powerful vehicle ever planned.

Offline Chris Bergin

RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #10 on: 04/11/2006 08:47 pm »
Welcome to the site. We've got a few Apollo people here, and that's an interesting question, given we've heard a number of interesting comments on the Apollo/STS transition - and what may have come of it staying the course of Von Braun.
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Offline publiusr

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #11 on: 04/12/2006 06:29 pm »
The Soviet model allowed the Chief Designers to have their way. That and they kept their Air Force away from space. I think if the ABMA had dominance in space with our Air Force being kept the heck away from Space--we would have seen Von Braun in a position of Glushko or Korolov with Medaris as his Ustinov.

Offline Jim

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #12 on: 04/13/2006 01:45 am »
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publiusr - 12/4/2006  2:29 PMThe Soviet model allowed the Chief Designers to have their way. That and they kept their Air Force away from space. I think if the ABMA had dominance in space with our Air Force being kept the heck away from Space--we would have seen Von Braun in a position of Glushko or Korolov with Medaris as his Ustinov.


Soviets had no idea what was going on.  The Chief Designers were lose cannons.

Von Braun could have never been Korolov.  Von Braun only did LV's, Korolov did manned spacecraft, umanned, and whole lot more.

Our system served us well.  The Army had no business in space.  The NRO did more for space than ABMA



Offline Zoomer30

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #13 on: 04/18/2006 05:42 am »
I think it was called NOVA.  All the old "rocket posters" from the day showed all the Saturn rockets and then after the SatV they had the Nova.  The first stage was gonna have like 9 F1 engines or some insane amount like that.  I think the SatV was the best for the time.  Getting 5 liquid fuled engines to start right was a feat.  Main reason the N1 was doomed from the start.  That thing had around 30 engines in the first stage alone :D

Offline Jim

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #14 on: 04/18/2006 11:43 am »
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Zoomer30 - 18/4/2006  1:42 AMI think it was called NOVA.  All the old "rocket posters" from the day showed all the Saturn rockets and then after the SatV they had the Nova.  The first stage was gonna have like 9 F1 engines or some insane amount like that.  I think the SatV was the best for the time.  Getting 5 liquid fuled engines to start right was a feat.  Main reason the N1 was doomed from the start.  That thing had around 30 engines in the first stage alone :D

Read earlier in the thread.  It is not Nova.

Online Svetoslav

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #15 on: 04/20/2006 08:00 am »
The most powerful vehicle that completed a successful flight is Energia. It successfully launched Polyus and Buran.

Offline edkyle99

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #16 on: 04/20/2006 02:01 pm »
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Svetoslav - 20/4/2006  3:00 AM

The most powerful vehicle that completed a successful flight is Energia. It successfully launched Polyus and Buran.

Most powerful in terms of liftoff thrust, yes.  But Energia only demonstrated an ability
to lift about 80 tonnes to suborbital trajectories during its two launches.  Saturn V
boosted 118 tonnes to Low Earth Orbit and 47 tonnes toward the Moon.  

 - Ed Kyle

Offline publiusr

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #17 on: 04/28/2006 09:58 pm »
That's still better than the Delta IV. I wish Energiya would be brought back.

Offline publiusr

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #18 on: 04/28/2006 10:04 pm »
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Jim - 12/4/2006  8:45 PM

Quote
publiusr - 12/4/2006  2:29 PMThe Soviet model allowed the Chief Designers to have their way. That and they kept their Air Force away from space. I think if the ABMA had dominance in space with our Air Force being kept the heck away from Space--we would have seen Von Braun in a position of Glushko or Korolov with Medaris as his Ustinov.


Soviets had no idea what was going on.  The Chief Designers were lose cannons.

Von Braun could have never been Korolov.  Von Braun only did LV's, Korolov did manned spacecraft, umanned, and whole lot more.

Our system served us well.  The Army had no business in space.  The NRO did more for space than ABMA



Only because space was robbed from the Army. The NRO did little for space apart from keeping Titan alive. I like that the Chief Designers were loose cannons. If you remember, the artillery men were at the R-7 sites for quite awhile. The Army had every business in space. Missiles are forms of artillery. Fighter jocks run the Air Farce and will sit on space. I think Medaris would have been much better than Bernie Schriever if given the chance.

Medaris got the larger test stands built even though there wasn't a need for them with Redstone. I recommend his book COUNTDOWN FOR DECISION as a good counter to what the Air Force folks want you to believe. It wouldn't surprise me if the fudged the numbers on costs and what not now accepted in today's literature.

Offline Jim

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RE: What was the most powerful vehicle ever planned?
« Reply #19 on: 04/28/2006 10:45 pm »
Quote
publiusr - 28/4/2006  6:04 PM
Quote
Jim - 12/4/2006  8:45 PM
Quote
publiusr - 12/4/2006  2:29 PMThe Soviet model allowed the Chief Designers to have their way. That and they kept their Air Force away from space. I think if the ABMA had dominance in space with our Air Force being kept the heck away from Space--we would have seen Von Braun in a position of Glushko or Korolov with Medaris as his Ustinov.


Soviets had no idea what was going on.  The Chief Designers were lose cannons.

Von Braun could have never been Korolov.  Von Braun only did LV's, Korolov did manned spacecraft, umanned, and whole lot more.

Our system served us well.  The Army had no business in space.  The NRO did more for space than ABMA


Only because space was robbed from the Army. The NRO did little for space apart from keeping Titan alive. I like that the Chief Designers were loose cannons. If you remember, the artillery men were at the R-7 sites for quite awhile. The Army had every business in space. Missiles are forms of artillery. Fighter jocks run the Air Farce and will sit on space. I think Medaris would have been much better than Bernie Schriever if given the chance. Medaris got the larger test stands built even though there wasn't a need for them with Redstone. I recommend his book COUNTDOWN FOR DECISION as a good counter to what the Air Force folks want you to believe. It wouldn't surprise me if the fudged the numbers on costs and what not now accepted in today's literature.

You are so full of it.  You dont know what you are talking about.  The NRO has launched more spacecraft than NASA.  They launched the first 3 axis stablized, manuvering spacecraft (with many more firsts).  They had a launch rate greater than any NASA program.  The Lunar Orbiter was a NRO fallout.  Hubble is also.  You just do know what the NRO has done.  The NRO made the shuttle bigger.

Bernie managed the Thor, Atlas, Titan and Minuteman programs at the same time.  He was responsible for SAMOS, Dynasoar and MOL and many more programs

ICBM's may be artillery but not launch vehicles.  Space is not in the Army doctrine.  The Air Force built all the test stands at Edwards, which were just as large

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