Odd that its going to take 6 weeks and 5 months for the two landers to get there.
They’re taking the scenic route.............
“Odd that its going to take 6 weeks and 5 months for the two landers to get there.”
Probably the most cost efficient orbits. No life support for the machines on board, so time is not an object.
I did a quick search. Energy conservation. It will take numerous earth orbits and getting farther out each time. They will be using that time to run various tests of the system.
They will spend 16 days in lunar orbit. I suppose for additional data gathering.
************************************************
I wanted to see what the difference was with the Saturn V. I was surprised to read that the SpaceX has twice as much thrust power in it’s engine. Something to do with the Saturn V using a 3 stage vs a 2 stage system was better for the moon. BUT:
“The Saturn V had a specific mission to deliver crew and cargo to lunar orbit. During each Saturn V mission, the different stages were discarded when they weren’t needed anymore. Ground crews rebuilt the rocket for the next mission.
Starship allows for more diverse missions like Mars exploration and lunar landings. Its reusability makes space exploration much more affordable, putting ambitious missions, such as crewed flights to Mars, within reach economically.”
They're going to do something similar, but on a larger scale, with the Lunar Gateway space station. It's going up on Falcon Heavy, which has about 1/2 the lifting capability the Saturn V had, and will take a couple of months to get there.