Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Nevermark 1179 days ago
And in opposite world: Rockets with steering thrusters near their top are highly unstable.
2 comments

At some point (some) people though rockets with the thrusters near the top would be more stable. See e.g. this rocket by Robert H. Goddard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard#/media/File:...

But it turns out that it doesn't matter whether you place the thrusters high or low, stability-wise. What matters is that the center of mass is in front of the center of the center of pressure.

Aren't they just as stable as regular rockets, but it's very inconvenient to put the thrusters on top? It's called pendulum rocket fallacy and from what I can tell that's the case.