/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11887282
They just need to design one from the ground up, I'm still convinced that XRS-2200 had relatively poor TWR numbers because it was running off the turbomachinery and plumbing of the anemic J-2 while also being designed during a time before computer modeling or additive manufacture.
>>11887295
Lack of necessity and ease of manufacture. Rockets spend very little time in the thiccque lower atmosphere where drag is a major concern, and most boosters are one-and-done expendable pieces of equipment, making them conformal would greatly increase their per-unit cost which is already fucking outrageous. Also it would only work for liquid boosters, since SRBs need their grains to be formed in a particular shape for them to work properly, and adding an aerodynamic shell over them with no propellant wastes valuable dry mass.