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Originally Posted by blackshire
That was like drinking from a waterfall--but a tasty one! Thank you for posting all of those links.
The portions about monster solid motor applications (and their impracticability due to their great masses) explain an article I came across many years ago in an early 1960s issue of "Aviation Week & Space Technology." Aerojet was at that time exploring the concept of strap-on boosters and stages employing giant solid rocket motors; they would be erected on the launch pad *empty* and then be filled with solid propellant--at the launch pad! A new "gel-solid" propellant that Aerojet was working on was hoped to make such motors possible. It was to be pumped into the motor cases from tanker trucks and then be allowed to cure into case-bonded solid propellant. Determining the grain integrity and extracting the mandrels from the huge motors at the pad would have been significant problems, but what a concept for reloadable model rocket motors a gel-solid propellant would be, eh? :-)
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Interesting...
One of the studies I have yet to summarize (and plan to ASAIC and post here and TRF) is the Saturn V improvement study from 66 IIRC. The study goes into a lot of detail about plans to upgrade Saturn V to be capable of up to 1 million pounds to LEO via various means, including the addition of 4 260 inch SRB's surrounding the Saturn V core vehicle.
Now, having followed the development of the Ares V proposals and their evolution, one thing that became readily apparent was that it was going to need substantial upgrades to the crawlers, crawlerways, pads, and even possibly VAB floor foundations to have the massive weight of it's 5, 5.5, and even 6 segment SRB proposals be supported and moved. The shuttle stack, as it exists right now, basically almost maxes out the crawler and crawlerway capacities due to the two heavy four-segment SRB's. Some proposals for three SRB variants of various designs, even FOUR SRB's surfaced in some discussions, but were COMPLETELY UNREALISTIC from a ground infrastructure point of view...
SO, the question came up of how these massive Saturn V improved vehicles would have been handled. In reading that study, turns out that NASA planned to build a new SRB processing/stacking facility which would have stacked the SRB's ON THE LAUNCH PAD. Basically, the Saturn V would have been rolled to the pad empty, just as they were during the Apollo moon missions. Once the MLP was set up on the pad, the SRB processing/stacking facility would have been carried to the pad and set up like the mobile service tower was during Apollo... Once the SRB PSF was set up around the Saturn V, segments would be individually hauled in (or monolithic SRB's depending on the design) and would be erected and mated to the Saturn V. Once the SRB's were mated to the booster, the SRB PSF would be carried away by the crawler, and the MST moved into position for servicing and checkout. Then the MST would be carried away by the crawler to it's "parking spot" and the rocket would be ready for launch.
There was talk about completing the planned-for Pad 39 C north of 39B, but not much discussion about the acoustic affects of the liftoff of 11 million pound + thrust rockets and how to mitigate the effects on surrounding communities...
later! OL JR
