SpaceX’s Solution to Land Starship Sideways on the Moon to Avoid Flip…

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SpaceX’s Solution to Land Starship Sideways on the Moon to Avoid Flip… === #spacezone #space #spacex #starship === We would like to extend our special thanks to: Thumb: Truthful: https://x.com/Truthful_ast === SpaceX’s Solution to Land Starship Sideways on the Moon to Avoid Flip… “Starship is too tall—there’s no way it can land on the Moon!” That’s something you hear a lot from critics of the Starship program. And honestly, it’s not a completely unreasonable concern. But questions like this are what make us think: what if Starship didn’t have to land vertically on the Moon? What if it could land sideways instead? Interestingly, this idea could solve more problems than just the landing itself. So, could it actually be done? SpaceX’s Solution to Land Starship Sideways on the Moon to Avoid Flip… As I said, one of the biggest concerns about landing Starship on the Moon is its height—and that is a very real concern. Landing upright on the lunar surface is extremely difficult. Many, much smaller probes, far shorter than Starship, have failed to land upright on the Moon. You might recall the robotic lander Odysseus. In 2024, it became the first American-built spacecraft to touch down on the Moon in more than 50 years, but it toppled over at an angle. As a result, the amount of science it could perform was limited because its antennas and solar panels were not pointed in the correct directions. SpaceX’s Solution to Land Starship Sideways on the Moon to Avoid Flip… Intuitive Machines tried the following year with another lander, Athena, but it also failed and ended up on its side. Without enough sunlight reaching its solar panels, the mission had to be ended early. Half a century ago, Apollo astronauts experienced this challenge firsthand. As they hopped around on the Moon, they sometimes fell over—lunar gravity is not very forgiving. It only takes a sideways motion of a few meters per second to tip over a lander. The same concern applies to the more than 50-meter (164-foot)-tall Starship HLS. While SpaceX says Starship’s center of mass is relatively low—with heavy components like fuel tanks and engines near the bottom—many people still worry that the vehicle is simply too tall. To land upright on the Moon, Starship would need landing legs, and those legs would have to be enormous.