[Renfrew]

The blowing soil and rocks is an issue I hadn’t thought about. The same problem exists on Earth. If you try and land a rocket in a field it will excavate a crater underneath it.

But does all of Mars have the same surface? The solution on Earth would be to find an exposed piece of bedrock or a salt flat. There must be somewhere on Mars that has a flat, hard surface.

[jmacusa]

Mars is subjected to wind storms with wind speeds of 400 mph for weeks at a time. A lot of the surface of Mars is made of silica, the stuff would be like shrapnel.

[Pollard]

Have robots build a landing pad with sides that curve up slightly.