Crew Lander for the Frontiers series

In the story this will have been used to put a team down on the surface of Areak, the (hypothetical) second planet of the star Lalande 21185 - a small red dwarf star 8.1 light-years from Earth. Ares has a diameter of 8000 km and a surface gravity of 60% that of Earth. Despite being relatively close to its parent star, Ares receives little heat, compared with the Earth and would be a frozen world except that it has an atmosphere high in carbon dioxide. This has two effects: a greenhouse effect that puts up the surface temperature considerably, and a denser atmosphere than would otherwise be expected.

The crew lander uses a retro-pack to drop out of orbit. Once the descent path is established, the retro-pack disconnects and returns to orbit for re-use. The lander enters atmosphere using the ablative heat shield to convert velocity into heat (which is discarded as the heat shield ablates). When the velocity is reduced sufficiently the lander deploys its parachutes and drops the heat shield. Landing legs extend and the final touchdown is accomplished using 5 rocket motors (the parachutes are dropped). The legs are adjusted to ensure the lander is verical and the crew can commence exploration of the surrounding area using a small runabout (to be designed). Once the survey is complete, the crew board the lander and the ascent stage blasts off using the empty main stage as a launch base.

John Ridgway