The Saturn V rocket was the first man to land on the moon. When man tries to land on the moon again five decades from now, that responsibility falls to the Space Launch Vehicle, or SLS. SLS is a rocket built at a cost of 23,000 crore dollars (approximately Rs 2.30 lakh crore) and is taller than the Statue of Liberty in America. It is also surprising that the Saturn V rocket, which first landed man on the moon during the Apollo mission, despite its many features, is comparable to the LLS in many respects.
In 1969, it was the Saturn V rocket that safely landed Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on the moon. Not only then but still today, the Saturn V is a marvel of space science. The height of SLS is 98 meters. But the Saturn V is a step ahead in terms of height at 110 meters. In terms of weight, the Saturn V (28 lakh kg) is ahead of the SLS (25 lakh kg).
Meanwhile, SLS has an advantage in terms of energy that can be generated. The SLS’s four RS25 engines combine to produce 39.1 meganewtons of thrust, while the Saturn V’s forward thrust is only 34.5 meganewtons. This is what makes the SLS the most powerful rocket ever built by man.
SLS also has an edge in terms of speed. The SLS had a top speed of 39,500 km/h while the Saturn V had a top speed of 28,000 km/h. While NASA spent $23 billion on the SLS in the 1960s, Saturn V cost $6.4 billion. Adjusted for inflation, this would rise to $51.8 billion.
The Saturn V went from paper to the launch pad very quickly, as the Cold War was at its height. Production of the Saturn V began in January 1961. The rocket was launched in November 1967. The Saturn V was successfully launched 13 times before being retired.
Although the SLS was announced by NASA in 2011, it took another eight years to officially go into production. Although more technologically advanced than the days of the Apollo missions, the Saturn V was ahead of the SLS in terms of production speed. Each Saturn V launch cost $185 million ($1.49 billion today), while the SLS launch cost $4.1 billion.
Columbia is the command module where the travelers sat on the Saturn V rocket that carried the Apollo 11 mission. A maximum of three people could travel in Colombia. Tourists will be aboard the Orion spacecraft on an SLS rocket. Four people can ride in Orion.
The main difference between the Saturn V rocket and the SLS is in the computer. Apollo had only one flight computer. But Orion has two flight computers that can work simultaneously. Their speed and memory were undreamt of during the Apollo missions. The SLS computers have 20,000 times the speed and 1.28 lakh times the memory of Apollo-era computers.
While the SLS rocket has a payload capacity of 95 metric tons, the Saturn V rocket can carry 118 metric tons. The maximum payload that the SLS can carry while orbiting the Moon is 27 tons, while the Saturn V is 41 tons. On paper it can be said that the Saturn V is ahead in this comparison. However, SLS is sure to overcome this limitation in future changes.
NASA has decided to deliver the SLS rocket to the launch pad in Florida on August 18. It will also be live-streamed on the NASA Kennedy YouTube channel. The launch of the much-awaited SLS rocket carrying the Orion probe is scheduled for August 29. This time, instead of humans, there will be dummies of the same weight. The third Artemis mission will take place in 2025 after the second Artemis mission carrying humans around the moon. The Artemis III mission is expected to land two people, including a woman, on the moon. They will stay in the moon for a week.
English Summary: How does NASA’s new mega moon rocket stack up against Neil Armstrong’s Saturn V ?