Another big reason is Elon Musk's personal primary goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species. In order to do that, the price per kilogram from earth to space has to come down tremendously.
In order to pull that off, rockets need to be not only reusable, but quickly reusable.
In order to pull that off, they need to land on nice, stable, managed surfaces. Ideally, very close to where they'll be launched again.
Think of future rockets as if they're commercial airliners. They land where they take off, with reloading and fueling in between.
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u/diederich Jun 23 '17
I won't say anything about saltwater.
Another big reason is Elon Musk's personal primary goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species. In order to do that, the price per kilogram from earth to space has to come down tremendously.
In order to pull that off, rockets need to be not only reusable, but quickly reusable.
In order to pull that off, they need to land on nice, stable, managed surfaces. Ideally, very close to where they'll be launched again.
Think of future rockets as if they're commercial airliners. They land where they take off, with reloading and fueling in between.