The Largest Rocket Never Launched
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- Опубліковано 21 бер 2020
- When the Saturn V first launched in 1967 it was the largest and most powerful rocket ever made. But a rocket designed years before the Saturn V would have shattered the scale of rocket design. This video looks at the enormous 60’s rocket concept known as the Sea Dragon. It also looks at it’s interesting design and why it was ultimately never built.
Special thanks to the following channels for their awesome Sea Dragon footage:
Hazegrayart - / @hazegrayart
xDarkMonkeyz - / xdarkmonkeyz
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Music used in this video:
» Magical Gravity - Asher Fulero
» Sunset Trails - DJ Williams
» Secret Conversations - The 126ers
Credits:
Written by: Ryan Saunders & Ewan Cunningham ( / ewan_cee )
Edited by: Ewan Cunningham
Animated by: Thomas Bracke ( / @flatlife )
Narrated by: Beau Stucki - Наука та технологія
Thats the first time i have ever heard the F1 being referred to as "smaller engines"
f1 engines are small. They are generally very compact turbocharged or supercharged 6 cylinders.
@@voidlight6006 In the context of this video, F1 is not referring to Formula One, but instead to a rocket engine.
@@KnightRanger38 r/woooosh
@@voidlight6006 it's about the Rocketdyne F-1 engines. Not the Formula 1 racecar engines
I actually bursted out laughing hearing it in the video.
2:13 I recognize those engine particles and that water... that’s not earth! It’s Kerbin!
YESS!!! YOU GET IT!!
Nope I used RSS so it's Earth ;)
xDarkMonkeyz / Ksp-Movie doesn’t RSS come with RSSVE anyway, so the ocean would look different? The plumes would definitely look different because of RealPlume, and either way the engines looked like they started off at full power, which doesn’t happen in RSS
@@spacekgb I'm the one who filmed it.
The engines started under the ocean so the delay was way before this view.
No RSSVE isn't bound to RSS.
I used real plume, and other mods, I can't really remember exactly.
Ps : And I think the Sea Dragon had his own plume .
It's earth with unrealism overhaul
I'm old enough to remember watching several Saturn V launches as a kid. I was always impressed with how big they were. I wasn't aware who much I had under-estimated how massive they truly were until I decades later I was on a business trip to Huston and killed a weekend day at the Johnson Space Flight Center, and walked around the last remaining Saturn V. Even laying on its side in a shed it blew my mind away.
Coulda swore the last one was at Huntsville? They have two I believe, maybe they’re both models
da biggest roket
@@brakefast3930 there's also one at ksc in florida. IIRC they're all real rockets that were built before the cancellation of the apollo program
Sea Dragon: One big engine
Saturn V: 5 relatively small engines
Starship: *37 Engines*
N1: *43 engines*
Remember, Less engines, better, N1, SLS's delay, Saturn V problems proove it
@@_mikolaj_ we'll see what will happen with the Raptor engine. But it's SpaceX, they know what they're doing.
@The Infidel Or 42 backup engines in case of failure.
@@_mikolaj_ on giant engine instead of 4 smaller engines (SLS for exemple) is not better,
And Starship wants to land on multiple celestial bodies, multiple engines is the best way to do it.
As an engineer, I could make an even larger one that will *never* launch
Nothing wrong with exploding things _for science!_
As a not engineer I can also make a bigger one that will never launch
As a not yet engineer, I could probably design a bigass dumb rocket that could lift a fucking city, but Goodluck trying to build it, and imagine if someone build it, and than the thing fucking explodes...
I could draw a rocket bigger than anyone ever has but it will never be built or launch
@@t-14theleopard68 T14 > Abrams m1a2, Leopard 2a7v, t90ms, K2 bp
It's quite hard to wrap my head around how large it was.
You mean would’ve been!😔
True
it hit home to me when I read they would have needed a nuclear powered aircraft carrier as a tugboat to get it to the launch site...
This will help
-go to closest skyscraper
-get close to it
-it’s bigger than that
*wasn’t
If the sea dragon was real welp, rip fish
I see you beat me to this comment. Fried sushi tonight...
There are plenty of areas of the ocean devoid of sealife. Plus underwater volcanic eruptions happen often and fish still exist.
Anon B more like burned sushi
@@user-uy1rg8td1v It would be small compared to an underwater volcano or a nuclear test.
rip all the whales and dolphins that use echolocation that will go deaf or just die
Starship is now 120 meters tall!
Lőrinc Soroncz-Szabó yay
Lőrinc Soroncz-Szabó Where did you get this information from?
Starship (50 meters )+
Super heavy heavy( 70 meters)
=Bfr (120 meters)
:DD
Francesco Molteni Sounds insane! Can’t wait to see it fly.
@@noadolic9653 me too
The concept is still viable, just at a smaller scale.
biggest problem of sea dragon nowaday is the engine bell...JUST LOOK AT IT ! this thing is absolutly massive, even the enormous F1 engine of the saturn V look tiny in comparison.
I think it’s the large scale that made the Sea Dragon theoretically cheaper.
Square-cube law says otherwise. You can't simply scale up or down a rocket, it takes some radical redesign.
Interesting
@@piranha031091 that's the whole point of sea dragon
Basically build it big and dumb in a way a small rocket couldn't.
"Imagine having no backup if one engine fail"
This meme were made by multiple engine gang
"imagine needing so much money on just the engines"
This meme was made by the single engine gang
''Imagine using engines at all''
This meme was made by caveman gang
Problem is that if an engine fails the whole balance of the rocket would be off
@@stevess7777 imagine even moving by yourself
this meme was made by the dead people gang
Oogaa oogaaa uhhhaaaahhh uuuuhhh oogaaaa monki babanana 😍😍😍
Was a pleasure to work with you for the animations! Very interesting video!
Awesome work!
@@FirstPassOfficial Thanks!
There’s always a “but”
nothing someone says before word "but" really counts
benjen stark
Agree
@@zaidahmed5464 and then benjen use a "but"
Or butt
For a more modern depiction of the Sea Dragon, it appeared at the end of "For All Mankind", an alt-history show where the Soviets beat America to the moon and the space race kept going. The reveal is pretty damn epic (ua-cam.com/video/SRMDcC0QvFQ/v-deo.html)
Loved that show. For anyone wondering it's only available on Apple TV+
I'm so glad someone talked about FAM
New episode is coming out so they are starting it up again if anyone is wondering
Happy to see this comment. FAM is fantastic.
@@milicijaofficer6611 That makes me sad, I can't watch it without paying for Apple TV +/
Sea Dragon got resurrected and launched in the Sci-Fi series For all Mankind, season 2.
And now we can see this at the end of the first season, and hopefully in the whole of the second season of For All Mankind.
I did enjoy for all mankind, but there were a few things that were totally irrelevant to the plot and other things that made you question why did they even bother putting that in the series, I do wish it was more historically accurate even tho it is an alternative history piece, but more historically based, like the movie midway was
@@azpatriot7937 But in that case there would be no women, no moon base, no continued space exploration. The second season has a lot to offer to show what could have happened,
Anyone gonna be watching season 2 as it starts this Friday
what a mess. Tons of steamed and fried fish and no one invited.
I love youPrimal Space, you take huge concepts and simplify them. Keep up the great work!
It's been a real privilege to contribute (a bit) to this video . Thank you for the opportunity.
This is amazing! I actually wondered how the engine would preform underwater, and this answered it!
Apple TV production For all Mankind, includes Sea Dragon in series one, episode 10, closing scene after the credits.
And it's carrying plutonium
*1980s music Intensifies*
lf you look closely at the start of the senate hearing with Wernher von Braun in episode 2, he mentions the Sea Dragon while holding a model of the rocket.
@@blackasp001 I noticed that, too. Although it would have made more sense for him to be holding a model of the Nova rocket. The Nova was supposed to be the younger sibling and successor to the Saturn V.
If rockets were athletes Saturn V would be a basketball player, the Nova would be a quarterback and the Sea Dragon would be a Scottish guy in the Caber Toss (Throwing big ass logs)
Shame it is on apple tv.
Absolute unit of a rocket!
he *c h o n k*
Haha I'm the 69th like
I mean on wrong spark and you got a bomb. Goes for dps and can't tank.
3:44 that air wave around the rocket, spectacular to watch.
I'm very grateful you made this video! It's always amazing learning more about my obessesion xD
2:10 That's ksp footage if I've ever seen it
HELL YAS!!!
Yep
I think there was an additional idea to build an artificial lagoon for it to launch from, so you wouldn't need to take it all the way out to sea.
I love the design, but the combustion instability would have been something else.
your animation is amaizing!
Thanks for the information and keep it up!!
I love seeing my KSP models still getting some use out there. :)
Unfortunately the closest we’ll ever get to seeing the Sea Dragon fly, will be in the second season of For All Mankind.
@Shadow Hyperion Yeah your right Starship will be the closest, but I was meaning more from the ocean launch aspect.
@@Zod_JB There was an ocean launch company, they never got off the ground. Joking, but I think they did launch a few times from a barge
Sea Dragon: Has big engine
Elon: *Ya’ll hear somethin?*
Incredible as always
Truax. .. dude even has a Vulcan sounding name!
I like it.👍
It would've been awesome to see the Sea Dragon doing a roll program slightly after liftoff.
Some day we may see the Sea Dragon! (says my wishful thinking). It's doubtful, but who knows, maybe starship will be just good enough to serve its purpose but there will turn out to be a much larger demant for LEO cargo capacity. I will dream for that day to come.
these ocean renders are pretty cool
It is HUUUGE! love your content bro
We need this to be built, and with new technology.
I would like to note that the Orion Project created several rockets larger than the Sea Dragon
I pray I live to see the day when something like this actually launches!
At this point the background music is so iconic for primal space
5:22 is the best part lol
Sea Dragon: Who are you?
Starship: I'm you, but better
Starship: And I don’t kill fish like you.
Not sure how exploding on the pad every time is a better design but ok.
Just imagine this! Its so cool!
Combustion instability is one of the biggest problems with single engine addressed above and another important problem was the material selection at that time since susceptible to corrosion(as launched from water) leading to catastrophic failure. As the size increases the margin of error allowed for failure reduces significantly because of the unstable nature by virtue of its configuration.
A massive Mars-capable rocket with simplified propulsion systems and reusable stages? Looks like we found the OG Starship boys!
Only in a Seadragon video could the Rockedine F1 engine be referred to as "smaller".
Your video is so good that I gave you 2 thumbs up
Holy crap that is an insanely huge rocket!!! 😲😲😲
that 2nd stage is bonkers, well actually the whole thing is bonkers
It would never have worked (as described in the video). A single engine that large would be a nightmare as instability issues wouldn't be easily fixed.
But my main issue is the lack of fuel pumps. The higher the pressure you can generate in a rocket combustion chamber the better as this creates more thrust for a given amount of fuel. Pressures can be as high as 200 bar (3,000 psi), so the fuel pumps need to be able to deliver fuel at an even high pressure than this, otherwise it won't flow. So to force fuel out without using pumps, the fuel tanks on Sea Dragon would need to be built to withstand these incredibly high pressures, and given the size of those tanks, they would be so heavy that it wouldn't fly.
Very brillant idea...
I have never heard of that rocket...what a behemoth it would have been....simplicity, ease of use and reusability...now where i have heard that before ?...but that dude was thinking that way back in the 60s. A man ahead of his time i would say....peace.
10 x the thrust of Saturn V = mind blown
0:20
Well... The story is a little more complicated then that.
About "largest":
If its by hight then *yes* , but there were several rockets that were wider like the N1, space shuttle and buran-energia.
About "most powerful":
If its payload to LEO you are talking about then *yes* , but if you mean thrust (at lift of) then both N1 and buran-energia had more.
And both of these actually flew, one was even successful. I don't blame them for failure, it's really hard to precisely control 30 engines just using analog equipment.
Seadragon have 80 million pounds of thrust
Did the N1 and Energia have more
1:41 Satisfying
Sea Dragon didn't flew because there was never a need to deliver so much payload into orbit, regular small rockets like Saturn V were capable of doing the required job.
You could have had a much bigger space station/ISS and bigger pace probes, space telescopes, Mars rovers, etc. at the same or cheaper price as smaller rockets/space shuttles as Sea Dragon was suppose to be cheap per launch due to its size and simplicity.
Or you could make it a ballistic missile put some big ass warheads in there and boom succses
@@andrewgraham6006 Yep imagine if they put a 500 ton nuke on it
Small rockets 😎
The only non lunar payload of Saturn V was Skylab which replaced the entire 3rd stage. Sea Dragon could have launched nearly all of the satellites ever launched by the Space Shuttle program in 1 launch. 3 total launches of the sea dragon would equal ALL the payload hauled to orbit in 30 years and 135 flights of the space shuttle program. I see Sea Dragon being brought back into development as we start to look more into building bases on the moon or mars.
There is some great cgi footege of it launching in the final episode of the tv show For All Manking
So basically a 1960s Starship + Super Heavy - Grandma I still love you
Time for do it now at least 5 of this kind!!!!
Always hope for a breakthrough with new kind of engine.Or imagine some kind of enormous slingShot to support start.Not mention some crazy sky platform /skytower elevator/or flying ^^ xD
Breakthrough !
@@lovehumanity5964 thx dont know why I wrote like that.
Rocket launches*
people: YEAHH!!!!
fish:AHHHHHH!!!!
Lol
LMAO
They should as least make some scale down versions to verify the theory and engineering possibilities.
In scale tests, the F1 worked fine. And then it didn't. 😪
Many of the possible problems are due to size, you might never see them emerge on a smaller scale replica.
Unfortunety sea dragons strength is its size square cube law less tank per unit fuel and convinence of lunching a space station at once no complex mission
thats going to be one big boom if that rocket blows up
Nice thumbnail :D
One small detail not explained in the video, but that explain why starship is compable to the sea dragon.
All our currents rocket and most rocket in history are made of a component : carbon fiber, a really lightweight and strong material, but quite brittler.
Sea dragon and startship use the same material : stainless steel (even though it's a different type of steel between the 2)
Does that mean if I get a huge electro magnet I can yoink my self a rocket? cool..
Sea Dragon uses Aluminum not Stainless steel
@@gerardanderson9665 where did yo ugot this weird idea?
the sea dragon is a rocket from the 60's, the idea was to make a dumb overkill "primitive" craft where economy of scales would offset the inneficiency.
Steel was definitively a no-brainer at this era for this idea.
I think the N1 was heavier, taller and definitely more powerful when it launched.
So much more powerful, in fact, that it exploded all 4 times in less than a minute after those launches.
Soviets really rushed that rocket so the first few models had major flaws, and when it almost finally flew they cancelled the program. If they could take their time, they'd use fewer stronger engines which were in development, and would only have lost 1 or 2 vehicles during testing.
I could be wrong, but I think the N1 was less powerful than the Saturn V. It would not have been able to get as much 50% of payload to the Moon, and about 80% of the Saturn V's payload to Earth orbit.
"No matter how wierd it is" best tag line ever.
this isn't just another regular payload, that thing's carrying plutonium
we could have been to mars in the 70s if this was a thing
Not likely probably closer to the mid 80s early 90s and that would be a flyby mission. Keep in mind the best way to get to Mars safely is by establishing a large amount of space infrastructure. We'd probably start with a moon base first along with Skylab. NASA would want to know the effects of living in low G and 0g plus effective countermeasures before sending an interplanetary mission. However I do see the use of the sea dragon being used to send larger orbiters and Rovers to the other planets. The Department of Defense would probably also use it for launching a very large groups of spy satellites. Also keep in mind the Soviet Union was still probably collapse so we likely see the same transition from space being extension the US vs. USSR to a more Cooperative International venture. You could see in the first International Mars mission in the early 2000s.
@@dragoninthewest1 Wrong you know why
Elon Musk 😎
I wonder how big a "sea life dead zone" launching one of these would have created? Since water doesn't appreciably "compress" I think the shock wave throughout the ocean from launching this would be pretty devastating. Anyone have a clue what their studies said regarding this? (I realize there are natural phenomena such as undersea volcano that may be comparable...I'm just curious as to what they figured this monster of a launch engine would do!)
@@mattcrosby2310 The "sea life dead zone" you refer to is pretty much due to the energy needs of the organisms. Sunlight becomes more diffuse the deeper you go, so you don't get as much new energy coming into the system (not counting deep undersea vents, which are a whole different thing!) in a vast majority of the ocean depths. But that's just a case of various zones of the oceans being more or less hospitable for life. What I was wondering was what a launch like this would do as far as killing the life in the given area of a launch. That massive blast would create one helluva pressure wave considering how little water compresses! Like someone using dynamite to kill fish! 😊
Great and interesting
"No Robert, we're not calling it the Fishboiler 9000."
BAHAHAH
If we went back and told them that in the year 2020, we still haven't built a rocket more powerful than the Saturn V, would they have continued to pursue these crazy rocket concepts?
Maybe, or we could get them to build the C8 and Sea Dragon(give them the designs and other necessary tech) in the 50's by scaring them into thinking that the Soviets would put ICBMs on the Moon.
The German V-2 Rocket was the first useful rocket an was launched from land, used during WW2. It was also the only rocket used during WW2. The polaris missile was not developed and deployed by the US Navy until 1959. The Germans were developing a towable V-2 missile launcher but it was never used.
4:01: Kerbal space Program
At 3:11 the man in a sport coat was my father. Fritz Widick. Lunar module test director for Apollo program.
When you’re new at a vid and don’t know what to say
Hi!
...but you absolutely have to say something, anything, because you´re that kind of person.
No u
Hey! Hey you do you know what kind of train this is?
All rockets: [launches to space]
Scientists: Good job. But, we need to see how Sea Dragon launches in drawing boards before we launch it.
Sea Dragon: Why am I always here... Not to leave these drawing boards... I wanna... Be launched...
New update atrimus 8.3 million pounds of thrust great video and keep up with the great work
Super cool upload 👌👓🎓🔭🔬
Imagine how much sea life would have been killed or at the very least deafened from the rocket
Not much
Yep. Completely disregards all sea life.
Why not lauch it in a sea/ocean that have not much aquatic life?
What about comparison of the Seadragon and the Starship? You said in the video it's the closest thing we got and you even mentioned the stats, but I doubt most of the viewers remembered the stats of Seadragon to be able to compare it. This will now make me go and do the research myself as to how they compare, and I'd say this decreases the quality of the video, especially if this happened near the end as it leaves the bitter feeling of not getting the answer easily.
you are doing a good job in general knowledge i have stated doing the same thing on my channel and have learned a lot for your video
seeing this on for all mankind makes me sad that he don’t have those advancements irl… Great Video btw
2:30 What sea-launched rockets were used in WW2 ?
Idk germans i guess those guys were fucking crazy!
something that loud underwater would have to have some effect on native sea life...and not a positive one either...
What about volcanic eruption???
The Pacific Ocean is effectively a giant desert devoid of life.
Your voice is more soothing than Roman Mars.
very interesting 👍
No ,sea dragon was possible considering nasa’s budget and logistics. But no Vietnam war was more important to 🇺🇸, which was a huge loss and jaw breaking defeat. Rather it had allocated that resources there had been multiple ISS, moon missions and even colonies on mars. Sea dragon was immensely capable. Unfortunate 😣
At least it happened in for all mankind
This is cool
Bob Truax was completely insane in all the best ways.
YO
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
KSP
When you accidentally add zeros to the nasa budget
The 15m starship will equal the crazy aspirations of this imaginary rocket
this is some kerbal level engineering
*Proven again, war serves no purpose to humanity.*
wut . U think sea dragon could be successful ? Hell no
2:29 no no i dont think so underwater missiels were in world war 2
Tens of years after ww2 first atomic submarine was build
@Shawn Ocallahan and torpedoes are not rockets...
@Shawn Ocallahan try to read about the difference about a rocket and a torpedo...and pay attention to history....
Pressure-fed engine of that size, good fricking luck my guy
Wow. You used Kerbal Space program footage, cool.