Re:SpaceX's Grasshopper Successfully Flew 325 Metres
by cryptoz on Saturday July 06, 2013 @04:59PM
(#6000049)
It's extremely difficult to land large payloads on Mars unless you have a controlled rocket descent like SpaceX is building with Grasshopper. Check out the way NASA lands small rovers on Mars and imagine trying to build a colony of 80,000 people like that: not gonna happen.
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Re:SpaceX's Grasshopper Successfully Flew 325 Metres
by spiek on Saturday July 06, 2013 @05:06PM
(#6000073)
Interesting. It does seem far less crazy than the '7 minutes of terror' from the recent mars rover. Thank you for the explanation.
Re:SpaceX's Grasshopper Successfully Flew 325 Metres
by rbanffy on Saturday July 06, 2013 @08:26PM
(#6000548)
If you build your supply landers (and your supplies, of course) capable of withstanding high g's you can probably crash-land large things on airbags. NASA hasn't done it because the rovers are somewhat delicate, but if you are shipping frozen-solid food containers, I believe it would be fine.