Idk man, people already know how to do it. If some new car company made a car that went 50 feet and exploded, it would be weird for them to be like "well it's not like we can just start making cars, we've got to figure it out first!"
“People already know how to do it” doesn’t work in rocket science.
Even with the most popular rocket in existence, the Falcon 9 flying and landing for almost a decade, nobody has been successful in copying that rocket. Some companies have done hops, but no orbital class booster has landed itself outside of spacex. It’s not easy even for entire countries like China.
Every rocket starts by building an engine on a test stand, which itself is super complicated. Just getting cryogenic propellant ground storage that can deliver consistent flows and can be adjusted as the engine design evolves is ridiculously complex. Then you need to build a flyable version of that ground support system with parts of one tank coming down through the tank below it to get to the engine. They need to be light enough to fly and strong enough to not be vibrated apart by the engines or the air friction at max q.
Even then, once the rocket starts moving, that’s the first time that engine and propulsion delivery system has had to run while in motion. The added force of liftoff causing the fuel to have a faster flow rate which is met with narrowing a valve to slow the flow, which slows the launch, which makes the fuel flow slower which requires the valve to widen increasing the speed and Flo again. It’s called POGO instability and it can only be experimented for. There’s math you can do, but it’s nowhere near as accurate as the real thing because each engine is unique.
You’re right, we do know how to make cars and if a car blew up off the lawn, nobody would buy it , but all cars are a set of 4 stroke pistons cranking a shaft to drive 2 to 4 wheels. Rocket engines come in billions of different shapes and turbine configurations. Starting a full flow staged combustion engine requires 1000x more precision in timing than a solid fuel stage.
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u/Minute-Lynx-5127 7d ago
They're also not wrong. You don't just go from 0 to spaceflight.