Its interesting, but it takes a LOT of fuel to get a payload into orbit, for it to softly land I can imagine its going to take a lot of fuel, which has to be carried up to start with, increasing the amount of fuel necessary to get into orbit to start with. This cost to lift a payload is why the Apollo used stages that dropped off and why the shuttle used booster rockets that fall away, to diminish the weight. Maybe they will do something similar to the Mars rover and use braking parachutes first? Otherwise I can't imagine them launching carrying enough dead weight in fuel for the return. Every pound that is in fuel or the craft itself, is a pound less payload.
Its interesting, but it takes a LOT of fuel to get a payload into orbit, for it to softly land I can imagine its going to take a lot of fuel, which has to be carried up to start with, increasing the amount of fuel necessary to get into orbit to start with. This cost to lift a payload is why the Apollo used stages that dropped off and why the shuttle used booster rockets that fall away, to diminish the weight. Maybe they will do something similar to the Mars rover and use braking parachutes first? Otherwise I can't imagine them launching carrying enough dead weight in fuel for the return. Every pound that is in fuel or the craft itself, is a pound less payload.
ReplyDeleteLarry