4 ms·

I suspect most of the structure that gets really hot or cold is steel. To save weight, they are probably also letting more of the rocket get colder/hotter than

I suspect most of the structure that gets really hot or cold is steel. To save weight, they are probably also letting more of the rocket get colder/hotter than normal, thanks to the wider temperature range of steel. Once the temperatures get reasonable, it might be aluminum or or carbon fiber. The passenger/cargo/avionics section are probably the only areas where this would be true, so a bulk of the rocket will be steel.

hinkley 7y ago
Steel can tolerate a lot more deflection before it bends, and much more stress before it cracks. And while I would never expect a space craft mechanic to employ this technique, any bike mechanic will happily offer to bend steel back into shape for you, but bent aluminum or carbon fiber is scrap. Bending it back will fracture it, if it hasn't already. When Canondale hit the big time, they had one model year where they made the dropouts out of solid aluminum and in the next model year the derailleur hanger was bolted on. It's the easiest part to bend and there's no repairing it. Bad enough for road bikes, spectacularly dumb for mountain bikes.