SpaceX Starship lands...without exploding this time

That design evokes the visionary artwork of Virgil Finlay and Chesley Bonestell.
I'm smiling broadly. The fiction of my youth is now reality.
 
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The article says there was a fire created by the landing. I did the obligatory googling to find that Martian atmosphere cannot support fire nor combustion. So that side effect might be less concerning than I once thought.
 
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A great achievement, but now the pressure is really on the SpaceX engineers to replicate and maintain that 'not go boom' record. I guess we will see what happens on the next two launches.

I really do hope they have cracked it now.
 
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The average person has no idea how impressive this really is. Establishing an accurate feedback loop with near instantaneous/continuous timely control inputs when dealing with rockets is a formidable challenge. Tolerances on rocket performance parameters (thrust, burn time, propellent flow rate, etc.) are at best in the 5% range, meaning the sensors have to be extremely accurate and reaction times from those sensors precise. We've tried to use a similar feedback system in ejection seats over the years, but have never got it to work.
 
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Ahhh good thinking.
The article says there was a fire created by the landing. I did the obligatory googling to find that Martian atmosphere cannot support fire nor combustion. So that side effect might be less concerning than I once thought.
Makes sense that fire would need oxygen. There is no aptmosphere there right ? I wonder if one could be created?
 
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I wouldn't call it impressive. I would call it impossible.
Here are a couple of historical a/c that were able to vertically take off and land long before computers were there to keep them stable. Neither went into production, but still damned impressive for the mid 50s. It took the Brits and the Harrier to make VTOL a/c practical.