this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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Ignoring the onvious fact that Starship has been designed from the beginning for going to Mars and SLS only to go to the Moon...
Didn't even the first Starship generation theoretically have a higher payload capacity than the SLS Block 2? And that doesn't even include the further enhancements to the ship design and Raptor updates since.
Could you explain to us how a vehicle capable of getting payload to Mars would not be capable of putting the same or even a greater payload on the moon? What is the obvious difference in design?
As far as I understand it, getting to Mars is harder, requiring more energy to get there, more energy to slow down and having an atmosphere to content with. Sure aerobraking is a thing, but in the big picture having to deal with an atmosphere makes things harder and not easier.
I saw a graph of our local gravity wells, the moon and Mars are surprisingly similar. The moon has many extra challenges that Mars does not. Propulsively landing on a dust pile is trickier than slowing down with aerobraking.
And to land on Mars you need both, ideally. The athmosphere is too thin to rely on just aerobreaking and the other would use much more propulsion.