Thanks for the extremely interesting info >*our probes don’t go into orbit first... | Hacker News

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		_dp9d on March 1, 2021 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to... Thanks for the extremely interesting info >our probes don’t go into orbit first but rather crash on Mars. I'm wondering why they don't go into orbit, and what extra complexities that introduces? In the future are we anticipating Starship to go into orbit, or will it also directly "crash" ?

mdorazio on March 1, 2021 [–]

Going into orbit first would require a significant amount of extra fuel to decelerate and circularize. Heading straight into the atmosphere means more mass can go into the rovers instead of into fuel. It's a trade-off.

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