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Say a smart person downloads the rocket plans and sets up a center of excellence. Said person gets a cheap commercial laser cutter, welder, tanks, alloy sheets, wood and steel rods, a used centrifugal pump, cheap fuel, pipes, etc. Why have I not heard of some smart person building a 21st century V2? What makes it so hard?

Chris
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Isrorian
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    All the red tape to obtain several hundred liters of pretty pure ethanol without paying outrageous excise tax (of order of 800% the product value)? Or several hundred liters of high-purity peroxide? With fuels/oxidizers available to broad public, people are reaching several kilometers of altitude... – SF. Jul 31 '16 at 10:21
  • You can set up backyard fuel station people are making (moon shine) their stuff from long times – Isrorian Jul 31 '16 at 10:26
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    "Of course for space exploration" The V2 could not reach space. If you wanted to take the technology and redesign it as (perhaps) a first stage, there are many improvements that could be implemented in both design & materials, the first being the 'fuselage that is also a fuel tank'. In fact, by the time you'd finished making changes to it, it would no longer be a V2. It would probably be cheaper and make more sense to gather what few good ideas (that had not been overshadowed by later developments) it offered, then design an entirely new rocket. Space X proved than when making .. – Andrew Thompson Jul 31 '16 at 10:44
  • .. *their* boosters, and they had the benefit of seeing what could be done with powerful rockets from the 1960s and beyond. – Andrew Thompson Jul 31 '16 at 10:45
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    I agree new design would be a better catch and also user friendly. But V2 could go strait up for ~120 km. – Isrorian Jul 31 '16 at 10:58
  • Smarth Person would not want to change aerodynamic properties of rocket. Even today russian iskander use same graphite vanes and other tech – Isrorian Jul 31 '16 at 11:11
  • Also, high-purity peroxide is not trivial to handle. If your centre of excellence messes up with a little bit of pollution then it will fall apart, generating heat. And heat also causes it to fall apart. That might cause rapid unintended deconstruction of your rocket or storage tanks. – Hennes Jul 31 '16 at 12:41
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    Very much related, but I don't think it's a duplicate to this question as asked: Could I build my own spaceship? (though it does specifically ask about suborbital spaceflight, so I guess with an appropriate flight profile the V-2 just might count). See also Could I home-brew my own rocket fuel? (I especially recommend the Asimov quote included in the question). – user Jul 31 '16 at 13:28
  • V-2 used peroxide to drive the turbopump, but the propellant was 75% ethanol 25% water burned with LOX; 75% ethanol is readily available: Bacardi 151 for example. – Russell Borogove Jul 31 '16 at 15:03
  • I don't know what more stupid climbing the everest, handing a gun to child, taking ice bucket challenge, buying tesla(seriousily, wait for tech to mature) , or employing a chemical engineer for a week. – Isrorian Jul 31 '16 at 15:08
  • @RussellBorogove: Impurities would likely stuff nozzles. 95% pure ethanol is available in trade, and encumbered with excise such that you'd really need to be a millionaire to afford fueling a V2. Denatured alcohol would be much cheaper, but I'm afraid the impurities could negatively affect combustion. OTOH, amateur handling LOX? oh joy. If you think pure peroxide is a bitch to handle, you have another thing coming... – SF. Jul 31 '16 at 17:37
  • @AndrewThompson V2 could and did cross the Kármán line, according to a source quoted by Wikipedia. It could not reach orbit, which is of course far more difficult. – gerrit Aug 01 '16 at 10:46
  • Yeah, it carried a big warhead too. I see, but it was perfected with scud missile(which is off topic here). – Isrorian Aug 01 '16 at 13:05
  • A used centrifugal pump would not help as long as you get one with the needed pressure and flow rate which is not to heavy for a rocket. You need two pumps and the one for liquid oxygen must be compatible to the low temperature and liquid oxygen. Using the wrong lubrication for the pump and it may explode on contact with the oxygen. Getting used pumps with the necessary specifications seems nearly impossible. – Uwe Aug 01 '16 at 13:41
  • They used a fire engine water pump how hard it would be to get a same tech 50 year later. – Isrorian Aug 01 '16 at 16:32

1 Answers1

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Since we're not prepared to build V-2s today, it is probably worthwhile to treat this as if we were making V-2s from scratch.

The American Jupiter-C, which was derived from the V-2, cost $92.500 million in 1959 dollars to develop. In today's dollars that is about \$752.00 million.

Could improvements be made today to bring down this cost? Possibly, but I think a point-by-point analysis of cost savings for the entire development of the rocket is too broad for an answer here.

It's worthwhile to note that Copenhagen Suborbitals (whose members work for free) estimated in 2013 that they had raised under half a million dollars. They have yet to achieve suborbital spaceflight, and they have had only one launch since 2013.

called2voyage
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