[BBray_T1296]

There is a reason that the Soviet Union was able to develop a closed cycle rocket engine deemed by American rocket scientists to be impossible. That reason? Iterative testing, failure, fixing that problem, discovering a new one. Rinse and repeat.

Sure their specific methods may be dirty or whatever, but they still produced an engine ~10% more efficient than anything we could come up with as of the early 90s.

Sure, doing the math and everything is a good way to get stuff done, but at some point it becomes more cost effective (time = money!) to simply do it twice then spend three times as long doing it once.

Lives are not on the line in, failure is always an option. It makes a great learning experience too