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Luckily SpaceX has already done it for us. A Falcon 9 can supposedly put three tons on the Moon, or two tons on Mars: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/st
by hugh3 16y ago
Luckily SpaceX has already done it for us. A Falcon 9 can supposedly put three tons on the Moon, or two tons on Mars:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=space&id=news/asd/2011/02/08/01.xml&headline=SpaceX%20Lands%20Contract%20To%20Fly%20To%20Moon http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?cha...
Not sure if that includes the fuel you'll need for a soft landing, though.
For comparison, an Apollo lunar lander was fifteen tons including fuel. I'm guessing a Falcon 9 Heavy could manage that.
- rbanffy 16y agoA Falcon 9 can put 9900 Kg on LEO. A 9 heavy can put 5 times as much. It's reasonable to extrapolate that to about 15 tons on lunar surface or 10 on Mars. As for Mars, you can use the atmosphere to shed some speed. You can't do the same on the Moon, but your speed will be lower, so, it may as well end up being the same.