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For someone who doesn't know much about aerospace engineering, can someone outline the actual challenge with getting something like this right? What's the miss
by diminoten 12y ago
For someone who doesn't know much about aerospace engineering, can someone outline the actual challenge with getting something like this right?
What's the missing piece that'll effectively eliminate accidents like this? Or is this one of those things that will just happen from time to time because going to space takes a lot of math that we don't fully understand yet?
I was just under the impression that this was a very well known area of science.
- avmich 12y agoI think this is fundamentally pretty hard problem. It involves control of turbulence, and this is a big in general unsolved problem today. That includes hypersonic flights, thermonuclear plasma control... Rocket engines work on the edge of material capabilities, and fluctuations - which you want to tame to guarantee things like that won't happen - are hard to deal with.
- austinz 12y agoWith these particular engines, you also have the variable factor of them being stored for decades in a warehouse, and all the issues with metal corrosion, fatigue, degradation, etc. that come with that. I'm not a materials engineer, but I could imagine things like seasonal temperature changes, humidity, rough handling, changes in the metallurgical properties of the alloys they used over time could all affect the ability of the engine components to withstand high temperatures and pressures.