The Mod on the Silver Mountain: Let's shy away from discussing dealings with Congress, just to keep things safe.

Quote Originally Posted by Sermil View Post
Anything on Earth will have far too much gravity, far too much air, etc.
Also, this has the interesting analog of how taking off and landing are sort of inversely proportional. Landing on Earth is much easier than landing on the moon, thanks to the atmosphere - you just get your angle right, make a few atmospheric dips if your velocity is too high, and let chutes take care of the rest. The Moon, with no atmosphere, means you're directly controlling the entire landing process by firing your rockets. You orient by rocket. Control descent speed by rocket. Steer by rocket. All things that chutes and math can handle for you on Earth. Conversely, to take off on Earth, you have to break through all that soupy gas before you can really start burning to orbital velocity, which wastes just a ton of energy. On the Moon? Easy peasy, your only hurdle is gravity and that's always the case regardless.