pufftaloon t1_j8u1cab wrote on February 16, 2023 at 11:04 PM

Reply to comment by urmomaisjabbathehutt in After a decade in development, Japan’s H3 rocket is ready for its debut by DoremusJessup

Have you ever tried playing Kerbal space program? If you get into it you'll very rapidly understand why SSTO designs are not worth it.

Every kilogram of mass you have to lift to orbit requires multiple kilograms of fuel. And that extra fuel itself requires fuel to lift it. Staging allows you to jettison mass part way, meaning you need to carry significantly less fuel over all.

First stage reuse is a solved problem, and there's multiple very cool ideas for second stage reuse in development right now. We're so close to cracking this.

urmomaisjabbathehutt t1_j8ujz8w wrote on February 17, 2023 at 1:17 AM

you talk about the problem with extra fuel needed yet mention that there are some trying to develop a reusable second stage which incidently will require fuel

so lets watch the youtube video about why single stage rockets suck right? oh shit conbustible

meanwhile i'm talking about different technologies

hypersonic and sabre engines take advantage of the air in the atmosphere so they don't need to carry so much oxidizer with them

on a very quick search designs similar to this

https://physicsworld.com/a/air-breathing-rocket-engines-the-future-of-space-flight/

or this

[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27524937_StarRunner_A_Single-Stage-to-Orbit_Airbreathing_Hypersonic_Propulsion_System]

still looking further ahead there are other technologies being explored and imho that can be explored further