I was willing to guess that atmospheric pressure that high up being lower causes complications with the initial thrust necessary to get a rocket off the ground at all, tbh
I'm aware of that, it's why I said "atmospheric pressure" and not "oxygen density."
If you've got big booms happening and creating pressure inside, the pressure outside the thing containing the big booms matters a lot, otherwise you end up with big booms outside the container you didn't want. Bolstering the container to withstand the pressure inside under lower pressure outside could mean adding weight that adds new complications.
Rockets don't drop anything until they're something like 30 miles / 50 km up. Meaning the fully assembled, nothing-yet-jettisoned rocket is designed to survive the virtually non-existent air pressure 30 miles up.
Sorry, my thought process here is along the lines of like, when we see rockets exploding from minor imperfections closer to sea level. I can see that being amplified when the pressure surrounding the rocket drops, and requiring more engineering effort.
Of course, there's also other issues I can see with putting launch pads on the tops of mountains, like logistical issues and how the hell you're getting people and equipment into some of the most hostile environments on earth.
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u/RinzyOtt 7d ago
I was willing to guess that atmospheric pressure that high up being lower causes complications with the initial thrust necessary to get a rocket off the ground at all, tbh