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Raytheon

@KaleSteak The Vice president of Raytheon is a retired astronaut from the European Space Agency
They are also a co-contractor with Lockheed-Martin on several NASA projects

no one shall pass

Raytheon is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 87 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. (Source: Definitions.net)

Raytheon is a gigantic defense contractor with civilian-facing products as well. I'm not sure if they do anything with NASA. At any rate, you might as well have named the freakin thing Walmart

I understand the principles thanks. Done duna countless times with spaceplanes but I opted for parachute assisted after gliding in. The query was just based on this particular craft.. rear engines alone seemed not enough because the required speed to come down gently as a glider with such a thin atmosphere would be too high for the landing gear, but added vtol makes sense.

@=) Final Descent on Duna is usually based on the actions of Atmosphere Skimming. You make the most shallow approach path due to it's thin atmosphere. As you should know with basic physics, the faster you're going, the less lift surface area you need in order to achieve lift. The booster is used once you're going slow enough that the act of Atmosphere Skimming no longer gives you enough lift to stay airborne. The booster is then used to gradually replace the lift surfaces as you get closer to the surface. By touchdown, you should pretty much only be using the booster.

The exploration version has a small landing engine on the bottom to do VTOL style landings on airless worlds as well as final descent on Duna.

Plz explain landing on duna because I dont think you have enough lifting surfaces to glide at a speed that wouldnt smash you to pieces on touchdown.
I get around it on my SSTOs with front mounted parachutes to come down ass first after its slowed enough on the re-entry glide and have an engine assisted landing.

Yeah, that to.

Looks pretty fucking cool too. Kind of reminiscent of the SR-71 if it got a facelift and was white instead of black.