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Spaceships are surprisingly simple. Starship has much fewer control surfaces, for example. It does have a lot more engines though, and these Raptor engines ar

Spaceships are surprisingly simple. Starship has much fewer control surfaces, for example. It does have a lot more engines though, and these Raptor engines aren't trivial, so I'm not sure it's actually true.

TremendousJudge 7y ago
As far as I know liquid propellant rocket engines are notoriously complex, and operate under even more extreme conditions than modern airplane engines
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Don't underestimate how complicated modern high bypass turbofan jet engines are. Way more R&D money had gone into the latest designs than went into e.g. the Raptor engine. A crazy random fact is that there are entire turbine parts that are a single molecule, yet are bigger around than you are tall.
  - jacobush 7y ago
    Single molecule thin? Or is it something polymer like? That's intriguing.
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      No, the entire thing is a single large molecule, despite however many kilograms it weighs.
      - jacobush 7y ago
        Intrigued! (I thought some plastics, polyethylene for instance was always single molecule, but it's seems I'm mistaken.)