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From: REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: SPACE Digest V3 #117 [actually lunar soft landing]
Message-ID: <1631@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-May-83 08:33:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1631
Posted: Tue May 31 08:33:00 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jun-83 07:50:23 EDT
Lines: 13

From:  Robert Elton Maas 

Gee, that's a fantastic idea (in both connotations of the word, both
strange/weird and wonderful/brilliant).
You'll need a shield against the ablative effect of the dust. Perhaps
you first toss enough dust up to orbit to construct a shield, and you
do so. Then your soft-lander "burrows" through additional tossed-up dust
on its way down. While on Luna, it is equipped with a brand new shield
for the up trip. On the way up yet more tossed-up dust gives it
orbital velocity. Once in orbit it sheds the up-shield, dons its ion
rocket (or gets docked with an ion-rocket tug) for non-landing
maneuvering, then sheds the ion rocket or tug and dons a down-shield
for the next trip to Luna.