1) The LM needed 3 pounds of fuel for every 1 pound of mass because of the 1.9 km/s deltaV to land and return to Lunar orbit. That's a total deltaV of 3.8 although the return trip was with roughly half the mass. The deltaV for Mars landing is 1 km/s with no fuel needed for return. That allows a much more massive lander from the same relative point in orbit if you had the same total mass allowance for fuel+lander.
2) The Command Service Module carrying the lunar module needed 0.9 km/s delta V to enter and (I think) leave Lunar orbit. The Command Service Module also needed fuel to return to Earth. My reference gives a 2.4 km/s for direct return from the Moon, but I think they paid a penalty for orbital rendevouz. At any rate The Command Service Module carrying the lunar module needed at least 0.5 km/s delta V to return to Earth, possibly as much as 2.5 km/s.
3) The third stage of Apollo carried all three to the Moon. In short Apollo could have put a lot more mass on the Moon one way.
Regards,
Mark
Space/Science » in reply to Aeronautically speaking, weight is the enemy of all things good
Several Big Factors You Forgot To Mention
The whole thread (30 posts)
- Orbiting but not Landing on Mars
- And What Are You Talking About With Regard To Launch Windows?
- It's Far Past Time You Read Something On Using Martian Resources Raoul
- "You need to take your return fuel with you to a Martian moon which means you also need the fuel to carry it. "
- re: It's Far Past Time You Read Something On Using Martian Resources Raoul
- The problems with using Martian resources for the return trip.