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posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the complete-with-Matian-baggage-handlers dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

SpaceX Starship potential Mars landing sites uncovered in NASA images

SpaceX isn't kidding around about its Mars plans. Elon Musk's space company seems to have requested images of potential Mars landing sites from NASA.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRise camera database includes a small group of images labeled as "Candidate landing site for SpaceX Starship."

Starship is SpaceX's next-generation spaceship. It's meant to service Earth orbit as well as the moon and eventually Mars. Starship is moving through a fairly rapid development process. SpaceX is currently building two orbital prototypes and just completed a successful short jump of its Starhopper prototype as a test of its Raptor engine.

Robert Zimmerman from the Behind the Black blog seems to be the first person to call attention to the NASA images. Mars-focused site humanMars.net picked it up with a post of its own on Sunday.

The HiRise image database is searchable by anyone. These SpaceX-related images likely came out in a recent August update. The MRO captured the images in June and July.

While SpaceX may be years away from launching an actual Mars mission, it doesn't hurt to start scoping out possible landing sites. NASA begins its own evaluations way in advance before sending a lander or rover to the Red Planet.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:52PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:52PM (#889226) Journal

    if they can find a site that is already paved. (should I put the sarcasm tag here, or not?)

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:59PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:59PM (#889228) Journal

    But you don't want to land on any Martians.

    Maybe wind erosion could help "pave" a flat spot?

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    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 03 2019, @05:13PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 03 2019, @05:13PM (#889231) Journal

      Landing on the natives might spark a war of the worlds, or something!