Talk:Unmanned setup of a whole settlement

"Since the Martian atmosphere is thin, the landing requires more than just wings. For previous missions additional boosters and parachutes were used. For a colonisation the preceding construction of a space elevator can potentially reduce the costs of landing large amounts of equipment on Mars."

"the landing requires more then just wings". You do not need wings to land. The only spacecraft to reenter and land with wings was the space shuttle (And its Russian counterpart, Buran). Landing could be achieved with a near-conventional aeroshell, parachutes and airbags that deflate on impact or a crushable section. Incorperating some sort of decent engine like that on the apollo lunar module would increase accuracy but also increase complexity. A space elevator would not reduce the costs of anything. A space elevator is a massive megastructure requiring untested construction methods and constant maintanance. The advantage of an aeroshell/parachute/airbag cargo lander is that the materials could be enriched with elements and compounds that are rare on Mars, so that they could be recycled at a later date. T.Neo 13:32, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Conventional lander technology is all we have at the moment. We have experience for small probes. We have no experience for landing heavy load on Mars. So, this is untested as well, and we have to develop new landers anyway. Probably, aeroshell/parachute/airbag is not feasible alone and requires additional support of rocketry. I find the idea of a space elevator interesting, because it seems to be possible due to the low gravity of Mars, even with known materials. But yes, it is untested hitherto. And no, it does not require constant maintenance if used just to land all the material for the settlement kick-off. The space elevator for landing is quite simple, and I suppose it might be cheaper than conventional landing technology for large amounts of equipment. However, I am not able to do the calculations. I wish, some experienced engineer from NASA or Roskosmos could help us with some calculations. -- Rfc 20:39, 21 July 2008 (UTC)