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submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

answer; big engines have acoustic/vibration side effects making them unstable. smaller engines more reliable, reduce risk of overall failure.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

That, and a single Rocketdyne F-1 would have waaaaay too much thrust for the job of getting an almost empty booster to hover

(Didn't watch the video, don't know if this was covered)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm going to assume in the 50's/60's the manufacturing time table played a role, as did the limited control systems?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Controlling that many engines back then was very difficult. A lot of the N1 issues were from the limited processing power in its computer.