re: NASA's InSight Mars Lander Touches Down Today - Touchdown Confirmed!!

So glad to see we are mastering controlled decent. It’s one thing to see us doing it with rockets on earth, but Mars’ atmosphere is basically a slight vacuum, which means aerodynamics are out of the question for heavy flight or controlled descent. This is going to be crucial when we need to start preloading heavy industrial and sustainability equipment prior to human arrival.

I really wish we had a better option for fuel vs energy density right now that could make such landings and launches much less precarious

Regardless of various paths being taking in space, they are all crucial. I think things will likely lean toward NASA/JPL being the R&D, with the private industry lead by SpaceX doing the logistics. Once everything comes together, the profit returns will be unreal and become a modern gold rush. It’s kind of funny, but it seems like Elon Musk and SpaceX are literally doing the same thing that made Weiland Industries the supreme leader in space