From: tl@none.invalid   
      
   JF Mezei   wrote:   
   >Elon seems to have given up rather quickly on the idea of Starsgip   
   >landing with legs etc, and the focus now is on "Stage 0" with the arms   
   >that hope to grab both the boosters and Starship as they land.   
   >   
   >I know, iterative design.  Get it to fly before worrying about landing.   
   >   
   >The Stage 0 cradle capture is fine if Starship is to launch a satellite   
   >and come back to Texas.   
      
   Or landing on one of their floating platforms that they're converting   
   from existing oil rigs.   
      
      
   >But since the goal is to go to Mars and Moon, those missions will   
   >reaquire some real landing legs.  And these legs will require some hefty   
   >strength to absorb the weight+impact at landing, as well as support a   
   >fully fueled vehicle prior to departure.   
      
   The landing legs for the Moon can be WAY smaller and lighter than the   
   ones necessary for Earth, that 0.1654g is an massive advantage.   
      
   Heck, arguably the biggest problem landing on the Moon is that the   
   main rockets can't be used because they're so powerful and close to   
   the ground that they'd blow up too much dust - hence the special and   
   less powerful landing thruster placed high on the Starship.   
      
   And it's not just lower gravity on the Moon, since it's not going to   
   be refuelled on the Moon it will also have way less mass, furher   
   reducing the strength needed.   
      
      
   The landing legs for Mars obviously can't be as light as the Moon   
   variant but even at 0.3794g they can still be much lighter than on   
   Earth AND they're quite a bit down the development pipe.   
      
   In this case they do need to be able to bear the full mass since it'll   
   be refuelled on the ground but that's a static load which is much less   
   stressful than landing with the same mass.   
      
   Also AFAIK the plan is to long-term use the same landing system for   
   Mars, but obviously the first X landings/take-off will need legs.   
   Later they skip them to increase the payload fraction.   
      
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