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Originally Posted by BlameTheEx
I don't think you have quite grasped the quantities of material that has to be landed. adding thrusters or airbags to the weight is out of the question.
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Well, obviously it depends on what modules we're talking about. It's not like I would land the entire ship onto the surface of Mars. That would indeed be difficult. Some modules will be large, of course. A combination of several methods could work, perhaps?
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I am thinking more in terms of a landing field. One option is to build shock absorbers into it - say a few meters depth of carefully graded dust covered with a plastic sheet to stop it blowing away. If it is just nice and flat the landing packages can at least use simple legs with shock absorbers.
Alternately we could use a flat surface with a mobile catching device. A big fast robot with one arm the size of a crane, or more arms with a net between them?
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You mean huge robots that would catch the modules mid-air and put them down? That sounds interesting indeed. Or how about giant zeppeliner airships as a middle station?
