Lunar Landing Today

[SunJumper]

The Saturn V, a rocket made in the 60s/70s, weighed 2,800 tons on the launchpad. If we built a rocket capable of landing 2 men on the moon with one in orbit (an apollo-style mission), today, with the advancements in rocket technology, how much would the craft weigh?

[Camacha]

Not much less, I presume. The advances in technology would presumably be cancelled out by concerns for safety. Remember comparable cars only got heavier the past few decades, so I guess that might also be true for rocket crafts.

[Rune]

Well, thermodynamics haven't changed since then, so the efficiency of rocket engines is pretty much unchanged. You could shave some weight with our fancy electronics, but that's basically extra peanuts for the astronauts. So with the same fuels and the same number of stages, the rocket would pretty much just as big.

[Scotius]

Yeah. SLS launchers meant for lunar missions are comparable in size to Saturn V. Until we come up with non-chemical engines for upper stages, we'll need to build big.