RE: starship-design: Planetary Landing

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

Timothy,

> Would the ship be subjected to transverse stresses even if the speed
> relative to the atmosphere would be virtually zero? I'm
> imagining a radial
> path towards the surface of the planet (just like these single stage
> X-crafts can land), so I'd guess only wind or turbulence
> creates stesses in
> other directions.

X craft currently DO NOT follow a radial path to the surface. They enter the
atmosphere in a conventional nose first aerobrake maneuver and then flip to
tail first at some point.

> The same frame that distributes the forces of the 1g boosters
> to the rest
> of the starship should also be able to distribute the forces from the
> landing gear.


Except that the landing gear must be designed to transfer the load to the
center line of the ship and must be capable of supporting the same weight of
the ship that the main structure is supporting. Sounds an awful lot like you
just doubled the weight of the ship.

Lee