This isn't exactly new news. I found this via the comment section of a Next Big Future post. The post was about NASA's recent announcement of plans for manned missions.
Now, here's the problem. Even with greater thrust, you still need fuel. Where do you put the fuel so that you can land on Mars or on the Moon?
The lunar module weighed about 35k lbs, if memory serves. The ascent stage weighed 10k pounds. That's fully loaded with fuel. The empty weight of the Dragon is nearly that much by itself. It's probably going to need at least that much in fuel to land and twice that much to land and to take off again. In other words, it weighs about twice as much as the lunar lander did in the sixties. Where are they going to put all that fuel?
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| Apollo 15 Lunar Module lifts off the Moon. View from TV camera on the lunar rover. |
What Musk is appearing to do is to try to make a capsule into a lander and a reentry vehicle too. That's two separate missions. How the devil is he going to do that?!?
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