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malor said:
The SLS is just so dumb. It uses the most complex and expensive engines ever built, which justified their cost by being re-usable, straps four of them to a stick, and then throws them in the ocean.What a pile of crap that design is.
Another contender for 'dumbest design' is ISRO's PSLV. This is a 4 stage rocket that has:
1) The first stage is a a large solid rocket booster
2) Up to six additional strap on (giggity) SRBs, albeit optional - ISRO considers these part of the first stage
2) The second stage is powered by a single 'Vikas' engine that uses hypergolic propellants (UDMH/N2O2)
3) The third stage is another SRB
4) The fourth stage is powered by two engines that use different hypergolic propellants from the second stage(MOH/MMN)
https://arstechnica.com/civis/attachments/pslv_c51_b-jpg.58966/
All very Kerbal. This Rube-Goldberg machine manages to send up to 3800 Kg to LEO, or about 17% the payload of a Falcon 9 without reuse. I get that the rocket is an evolution of previous designs, but why didn't someone at some point not take a step back and ask if maybe a clean sheet approach would be better? 5 separation events, 3 different SRB designs and two completely different liquid stages, sheesh.