<story><title>Would von Braun&apos;s Mars landers have worked?</title><url>https://raypatrick.xyz/blog/2023/11/24/would-von-brauns-mars-landers-have-worked/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>Von Braun lived just long enough for the first Viking lander. So he got to hear the bad news.&lt;p&gt;Landing heavy objects on Mars is not quite as bad as an airless landing, but it still takes a lot of fuel. Von Braun probably would have wanted to build a large space station orbiting Mars, with rockets shuttling back and forth from Earth orbit for supply. Then, with enough fuel accumulated in Mars orbit, a soft landing on rocket power would be possible.</text></comment>
<story><title>Would von Braun&apos;s Mars landers have worked?</title><url>https://raypatrick.xyz/blog/2023/11/24/would-von-brauns-mars-landers-have-worked/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Sparkyte</author><text>Mars doesn&amp;#x27;t have a thick enough atmosphere for lift, you can fly a copter, but it needs a lot of power to do so and it needs to be light enough to do so.&lt;p&gt;On the otherhand you probably could get away with a space elevator on Mars where you couldn&amp;#x27;t on Earth.</text></comment>