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Expanding on that a bit more, I found an AWESOME resource:
The first and second stages take the thing mostly to Earth orbit - the third stage is needed to finish the job, though, for the last few hundred m/s (Earth orbit is 7,840 m/s). Getting to Earth orbit takes about 9,600 m/s, give or take a few hundred, maybe more. That 9,600 gets you to 7,840 due to gravity and aerodynamic drag losses.
The third stage fires again and uses all its fuel blasting the thing into a course that will overcome Earth’s gravity and send it to the Moon (Trans-Lunar Injection). This takes about 3,300 m/s.
As you move away from the Earth, though, its gravity slows the craft down (actually a very good thing, since it means less fuel is needed to capture into the Moon’s orbit. If you approached the moon at 3,300+7,840=~11,000 m/s, the Apollo missions would’ve been a heck of a lot harder - pretty much impossible!).
In a “perfect” world, you could capture into the Moon’s orbit with something like - maybe 700 m/s? But due a need for safety margins and a lot of complex geometric factors, the CSM needed to be packed with more fuel than that. It’s best to figure about 800 m/s for capture and maybe 900 for departure, just ballparking it.
But the real question here is what was it capable of?
From 28.8 tons to 11.9 tons dry with a specific impulse of 314 seconds, [1] keep the LM attached the whole time since we’re not returning to Earth, we’re just blasting away as fast as we can, so add 15.2 tons [2] - and the CSM part of our insane speed run will give us 9.82ISPln(mi/mf) = 9.82314ln((28.8+15.2)/(11.9+15.2)) = ~1,500 m/s.
Source [2] also cites the LM as having 2,500 and 2,220 m/s capacity.
So add this all up:
7,840 for Earth orbit.
+3,300 for trans-lunar injection
+1,500 for the CSM boost
+2,500 for LM descent stage, and
+2,220 for LM ascent stage.
17,360 m/s.
If we ignored gravity and aerodynamics on the initial launch,
17,360
-7,840 previous launch velocity figure
+~9,600 rough estimate of delta-vee needed to get into orbit
19,120 m/s.
19,120 / 343 = ~mach 56.
As for the various figures - those can be derived with the vis-viva equation., and orbital velocity is simply the balance of centrifugal acceleration (v2/r) and gravity (a = GM/r2), yielding v = sqrt(GM/r).
10,000 m/s on the first stage? Something’s wrong with the math, there…
It takes roughly 9,600 m/s to reach earth orbit (7,840 m/s, but the extra delta-v is needed for atmospheric losses and gravity), 3,300 for trans-lunar injection, 800 for lunar orbit insertion, 2,200 for lunar descent, 2,000 for lunar ascent, then 800 again for trans-earth injection.
You can’t just stack all that, though, because of how the lunar orbit rendevouz architecture works. So if you launch a Saturn-V in Apollo configuration, then your best shot is to hitch a ride in the LM ascent module for maximum speed. So that would mean:
9,600 for SV stages I and II and a little of III.
~3,300 for trans-lunar injection (SV stage III, known as the S-IVB).
7-900 for lunar orbit insertion. Maybe 50-100 extra using the TEI fuel since you won’t be using it (just going as fast as you can, ignoring the “getting back to Earth alive” problem)
Then 4,200 using the LM’s ascent and descent stages’ fuel.
So you can build up a good 18,000 m/s, ignoring gravity and aero drag. That’s mach 52.5, about 11 miles per second.
Hehehe… It’d be fun to build a Saturn V in my realism-modded KSP, then see how fast I can get a Mercury capsule going with it…
Anyways, you can’t feel speed in space, but you can feel acceleration, and when it takes off, various engine vibrations and aero drag effects lead to quite the ride. One of the most amazing videos ever IMO describes it very nicely!
(rocket engine starts and blast rainbow away like team rocket) cause why the fuck not!
That there was a lot more homework than you really needed to do. With that said, at least you’ll pass the test on Wednesday.
“Herr Dash, mein dear mare, you have no idea.”
the maximum velocity of a rocket is approximated by:
Delta_V = goISPln(Mi/Mf)
where Delta_V = the change in velocity
go = 32.2 ft/22
ISP = the specific impulse
Mi = initial mass
Mf = final mass
mp = propellant mass
mo = stage inert mass
mf = stage total mass
This equation has to be solved for each stage considering the masses of all of the fallowing stages and payloads
Stage 1
mo (lb) 300000
mp (lb) 4492000
mf (lb) 4792000
Mi (lb) 6200600
Mf (lb) 1708600
ISP 263
delta V 10915.79
Stage 2
mo (lb) 95000
mp (lb) 942000
mf (lb) 1037000
Mi (lb) 1408600
Mf (lb) 466600
ISP 421
delta V 14977.96
Stage 3 mo (lb) 34000
mp (lb) 228000
mf (lb) 262000
Mi (lb) 371600
Mf (lb)143600
ISP 421
delta V 12889.05
payload mass (lb) 109600
Max Speed ft/s 38782.80
Max Speed Mph 26442.82
In short, ignoring aerodynamic friction and assuming a constant gravitation acceleration the maximum achievable velocity is about ~26500 mph
/space nerd :P
Really though, even laying disassembled and on its side, the Saturn V screams fast.