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bigloser42 t1_j1w2ggr wrote

Rockets have issues all the time, the more rockets you need to launch to assemble/refuel your ship in orbit the greater the odds that one will fail/get delayed, which will then delay your entire mission. Once you stage something in orbit you are now committed to waiting for the next launch(es) to actually leave.

The window to launch to Mars is only open for 2 weeks every 2ish years. If you get enough of a delay that you miss your window, you have to wait 2 more years. It's better to launch everything at once on a single rocket to minimize points of failure.

Having said that, most of the Mars missions profiles are effectively staging on Mars, then launching Humans in the next transfer window. As for the Moon, that's close enough that staging in Earth orbit isn't really necessary.

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gbbloom OP t1_j1walni wrote

Well, that's one heck of an answer to "Why not" and makes an enormous amount of sense. I'm actually going to bring this one up the next time my daughter and I start in on it!

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ADSWNJ t1_j1wqytc wrote

Actually, I think it's better to have a fleet of say 20, 50, or even 100 starship to launch at the same time as a fleet. In this way, even losing 1 or 2 would still allow you to complete the mission. This is the same idea as the rocket array on the Falcon 9, where the rocket can lose an en engine and still have redundancy to complete the mission.

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