They want their craft to be able to land on any surface. Two of their chief prod...

bfe · on Sept 30, 2011

This is certainly part of it. The powered landing will give them precision control to touch down right on the launchpad instead of having to pick up the assets at sea, saving lots of time and money. But it also allows for a module to land on the Moon or Mars. Mars has an atmosphere, but only with about 1% the density of Earth's, so for vessels with this scale of mass, parachutes aren't much use, besides the issue once again of being able to position your landing spot precisely. Supposedly at every design step where it's applicable Elon has opted to make everything as ready for Mars as possible.

billpaetzke · on Sept 30, 2011

Supposedly at every design step where it's applicable Elon has opted to make everything as ready for Mars as possible.

Absolutely correct. I got that vibe from all employees I listened to yesterday. The underlying motivation of the company is: to go to and colonize Mars. Everything they do before then is to gain credibility, survive, and fund R&D toward reaching their ultimate goal.

bfe · on Sept 30, 2011

I saw Elon give a talk about colonizing Mars at a Mars Society conference at Stanford 10 years ago, before he founded SpaceX. He's thinking long-term.

JulianMorrison · on Sept 30, 2011

There's something more than slightly Heinlein about that company. I love it.

astine · on Sept 30, 2011

Elon wants to be the Man who sold the Moon. Or Mars, as the case may be. Don't blame him. I want to be that man too.

cynest · on Oct 1, 2011

I was thinking Long Range Foundation, but that works too.

maaku · on Sept 30, 2011

I work at NASA (though not on rockets), and that's a fair assessment; I think you correctly articulated what the SpaceX employee was telling you.

Aerobraking and parachutes alone aren't enough on Mars, even for small payloads (less than people-sized). Just look at the MER and MSL entry, descent, & landing systems. The reason being that mass scales with the volume while aerobraking and parachutes obviously rely on cross-sectional area. Even MSL, which is an order of magnitude lighter than a Dragon capsule, requires a sophisticated hybrid EDL system.

Also, although it may be Musk's goal to go to Mars, there is good profit to be made in Near Earth Objects and the Moon, none of which have much of an atmosphere to speak of.