Xah Lee's Unixism

[Anne & Lynn Wheeler]

Alan Balmer <albalmer at att.net> writes:
> No, because they were *not* manufactured on the launch pad.
> Transportation would be required from any other place - in Utah or
> not.
>
> Even if they were manufactured on the launch pad, there would be more
> than one piece.

i have vague recollection of a picture of saturn v 1st stage being
barged to florida ... having been built someplace in a single assemble
... and not requiring re-assemble in florida with gaskets.

can you imagine it being built in sections that required meeting
overland train transportion restrictions?  ... not only would it have
to be section in 40ft long pieces .... but probably each 40ft section
would have to be cut into slivers since it would otherwise have too
big/wide .... and then assembled with huge amounts of gaskets in
florida ... not only around the circumference but huge amount of
gaskets up and down its length.

lets see what search engine comes up with for saturn v 1st stage
reference ... aha ... it turns out that wikipedia is your friend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V#Stages

fist stage: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IC 

is 138ft ... about the same length as the assembled shuttle booster
rocket ... but 33ft in diameter. can you imagine the saturn v first
stage being built someplace in 40ft sections .... as well as down
its length 40ft long section down the length ... sort of like a pie
... say 8ths ... what is the straight line between the end points for
1/8th arc of a 33ft diamter circle ...

the circumference is a little over 103ft so 1/8th of that is about
13ft arc ... which would make the straight line for the end-points of
the arc about 12ft .... which might just about fit overland train
transportion restrictions. so saturn v first stage could be
manufactored in 32 sections ... transported to florida by train and
re-assembled with gaskets.

saturn v second stage 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-II
doesn't give the dimensions ... picture seems to imply about the same
circumference but not as long.


saturn v third stage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IVB

-- 
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/