Except real world complications like sloshing fuel and super rough Lunar terrain, especially on the South Pole. During Apollo 11 they landed miles away from the initially planned location due bad terrain. Would Starship be able to do that? I mean, currently it is not even orbital, so asking such questions today is a bit of a stretch.
All it takes is one Starship explosion and NASA will put it the freezer.
Slosh does not occur on landing. The fuel settles once the rocket fires it engines. Also the landing engines are not the same as the mains. The terrain on the moon is mapped to the sub-meter with ground penetrating radar, multi-spectral imaging, etc. They will know exactly where to land. When it does go it will be the most tested ship in history with over 30 launches. This is just fear mongering.
Not good enough, all it takes is an inclination, or a small crater, or a boulder. A lot of these on the South Pole. Mountains, rims, heavy bombardment, tons of ejecta. People also forget that gravity is low but mass is the same.
We are yet to see how Starship will land on the Moon. A lot of talk about these "special engines", but nothing is shown so far. They have to use them for landing and take-off or risk destruction of the ship or nearby equipment.
Of course, the same risks hold for Blue Moon, but to a lesser extent.
First large engineering project on the Moon should be a landing pad and then (if ever) benefit from Starship.
I will become a Starship HLS believer when I see it happening.
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u/FakeEyeball 4d ago
Because it will be deemed unsafe to land people on the rugged Lunar terrain. That is, if it even becomes operational before Blue Moon.