Rand Simberg doesn't like heavy lifters. But it seems that China may be building a Super Saturn V:
The new Long March 9 details were revealed by Liang Xiaohong, the Communist Party Chief at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), China’s largest rocket contractor. Vick at Global Security did an extensive review of Liang’s revelations.
Liang outlined several new Long March versions, virtually all of them testing elements that would eventually find their way into the Long March 9 that has 4 million lb. more of liftoff thrust than the 7.5 million lb. thrust NASA Saturn V.
I agree with Rand Simberg. If you consider the American space program, the rockets don't have to be as big as they once were. The Saturn V massiveness was unavoidable though, for the mission that was given to it.
It can be seen that with an advanced rocket design concept, launch mass can be reduced to one fourth of a Falcon 9 launch mass.
If you were to launch several of these, you could assemble enough stuff to make a more ambitious mission. Maybe even landing on the moon. The amount of mass needed would be reduced proportionally, and so the total mass needed to get to the moon would be far less than the Saturn V needed.
That's before considering fuel depots and in-situ resourcing. You can mine the moon surface for oxygen, for example. You could mine the upper atmosphere for reaction mass as another example. Mass is the big enemy. The less you launch off the surface of the Earth, the better.
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