JAL3
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- Joined
- Jan 17, 2009
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I want to pose a hypothetical.
Imagine a rocket in three levels, lower booster, upper booster and sustainer. Imagine further that at each level there are multile parallel stages. I'm talking about real drop off parallel stages, not just a cluster of motors. In the hypothetical rocket, the bottom level would have a cluster of 5 motors in the central stage. Then there are 4 parallel boosters surrounding this bottomost level. In the middle level imagine a cluster of 2 in the central stage and then a pair of strap on boosters. In the sustainer lets keep things simple(?) and just say there is a single motor and a pair of strap ons.
Needless to say, I just made up the above configuration and I know of nothing that resembles it. I made it up so that I could hopefully learn the correct way of reffering to the various stages. What are they called?
In the Saturn V type of system I learned as a child, it was easy. There was a first, second and third stage, each on top of the previous stage. I didn't even know there was such a thing as parallel staging.
In something like I described I have no idea how the various parts are referenced. Is there any standard for parallel stages at all?
For some reason, this has bothered me for a couple of days. Can anyone help out?
Imagine a rocket in three levels, lower booster, upper booster and sustainer. Imagine further that at each level there are multile parallel stages. I'm talking about real drop off parallel stages, not just a cluster of motors. In the hypothetical rocket, the bottom level would have a cluster of 5 motors in the central stage. Then there are 4 parallel boosters surrounding this bottomost level. In the middle level imagine a cluster of 2 in the central stage and then a pair of strap on boosters. In the sustainer lets keep things simple(?) and just say there is a single motor and a pair of strap ons.
Needless to say, I just made up the above configuration and I know of nothing that resembles it. I made it up so that I could hopefully learn the correct way of reffering to the various stages. What are they called?
In the Saturn V type of system I learned as a child, it was easy. There was a first, second and third stage, each on top of the previous stage. I didn't even know there was such a thing as parallel staging.
In something like I described I have no idea how the various parts are referenced. Is there any standard for parallel stages at all?
For some reason, this has bothered me for a couple of days. Can anyone help out?