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It could land directly, yes, but it makes use of the aerobrake for slow-down. Without that aerobrake it would not have enough fuel to do a powered landing all t
by kobeya 9y ago
It could land directly, yes, but it makes use of the aerobrake for slow-down. Without that aerobrake it would not have enough fuel to do a powered landing all the way down and then return to orbit (I think -- I don't actually work for SpaceX; I'm just a fan). But it is my understanding that it has enough fuel to do a full propulsive landing from orbit and back again, without an aerobrake.
- zardo 9y ago>But it is my understanding that it has enough fuel to do a full propulsive landing from orbit and back again, without an aerobrake. Not even close. Dragon has something like 450m/s of dv to use. Getting from the surface of Mars to orbit takes 3800. Orbital capture requires around 2000m/s. Without aerobraking, it couldn't enter Mars orbit, let alone land.
- kobeya 9y agoAre you looking at the CRS dragon specs? It is absolutely the case that future designs of Dragon are able to do a direct powered ascent from Mars. That requires a lot more that 450m/s. Current dragon can't do that, but I wasn't talking about current dragon.