this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
22 points (95.8% liked)
Space
1867 readers
140 users here now
A community to discuss space & astronomy through a STEM lens
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive. This means no harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Engage in constructive discussions by discussing in good faith.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
Also keep in mind, mander.xyz's rules on politics
Please keep politics to a minimum. When science is the focus, intersection with politics may be tolerated as long as the discussion is constructive and science remains the focus. As a general rule, political content posted directly to the instance’s local communities is discouraged and may be removed. You can of course engage in political discussions in non-local communities.
Related Communities
🔭 Science
- !curiosityrover@lemmy.world
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !esa@feddit.nl
- !nasa@lemmy.world
- !perseverancerover@lemmy.world
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !space@beehaw.org
🚀 Engineering
🌌 Art and Photography
Other Cool Links
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Wonder if the calculus changes if they use a different type of fuel for descent vs ascent? That way a hypothetical tanker would only need a supply of descent fuel, whatever that is.
That would make things worse, because now you're carrying the extra mass of fuel, tanks, plumbing and engines for the descent. Can't run a rocket engine on two different types of fuel and oxidizer.
The rocket equation is a harsh mistress. As long as you're limited to chemical rockets, you're not gonna have enough spare propellant for a powered descent. The energy density just isn't there. We don't do direct burns to pretty much anywhere farther than Mars and a Mars Hohmann transfer (the most fuel-efficient trajectory) burn takes ~3.6km/s. Less than half of LEO velocity.