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Getting into orbit for a lander means you need a much higher transit mass to include fuel and rockets capable of slowing you down. The Martian atmosphere isn’t

Getting into orbit for a lander means you need a much higher transit mass to include fuel and rockets capable of slowing you down. The Martian atmosphere isn’t thick enough for this kind of aerobraking especially if want to get there within a relatively short period during the transit window. Yes we do send orbiters and these have to be smaller and so are their landers due to you having to slow down to get into an orbit first. The vast majority of landers do not get into orbit.

lmm 6y ago
> The Martian atmosphere isn’t thick enough for this kind of aerobraking especially if want to get there within a relatively short period during the transit window. Nonsense, once you've made your capture transit is over, you can take as long as you like aerobraking to circularise the orbit. Even if you don't aerobrake at all, delta-V from a Mars intercept trajectory to even a low Mars orbit is about 1.4 km/s. Delta-V from that low orbit to the surface is 3.8 km/s. So the idea that direct descent vs descent from orbit is what makes the difference between parachutes being usable or not is total bollocks.