# Landing on the pole of a planet. Easier? Harder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506 "2019-10-26T17:39:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/1 "2019-10-26T17:39:54Z")
Or no difference as far as complexity/difficulty is concerned? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/2 "2019-10-26T17:56:41Z")
Depends on your technology. If you need to be in a polar orbit in order to land, and that wasn’t part of your initial trajectory you’ll need a little more energy to enter the polar orbit. I’d say that;s only a small change in complexity compared to everything else involved in taking off from one planet and landing on another. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/3 "2019-10-26T18:05:49Z")
Depends on the planet and what orbit you’re starting from. If the planet has difficult terrain (i.e. ice) at the poles, the landing would be difficult for that reason. If you start from an orbit that’s in or close to the equator of the planet, then there’s going to be a large requirement for delta-V to get the spacecraft to go over the pole. You need to be orbiting over some area to land on it. But I suspect neither of these is what you’re asking about. You’re probably wondering if the rotation has any effect. The answer is no, the rotation won’t be be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/4 "2019-10-26T18:45:36Z")
Disregarding any delta-V costs to get into the polar orbit in the first place, landing at a pole from a polar orbit will require slightly more delta-V than landing on the equator from a prograde equatorial orbit, because you’re landing on a point that’s stationary with respect to your orbit rather than landing on a point that’s traveling in the same direction as your orbit at whatever the rotational velocity of the planet at the equator is. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/5 "2019-10-26T22:33:28Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Depends on the planet and what orbit you’re starting from. > > If the planet has difficult terrain (i.e. ice) at the poles, the landing would be difficult for that reason. Depends also on weather - beware cyclones! - and reception committee(s), friendly or otherwise. Also if you’re in a hurry to land; are pursuit, pressure loss, or solar ejecta involved? What landing impact can the craft and crew survive? Are onboard computers programmed correctly and not hacked? Are the pilots sober? We can’t assume everything is copacetic. Murphy’s Law applies. What is the worst-case but still survivable landing? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/6 "2019-10-27T02:38:20Z")
If you have good enough superconductors, it’s theoretically [possible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_sail#Inside_a_planetary_magnetosphere) to land or take off from the poles (but only the poles) with a magnetic sail. _We_ can’t do it yet from Earth, but better superconductors might be possible, or the planet might have a stronger magnetosphere or weaker gravity. ---
**Author:** ![joema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/landing-on-the-pole-of-a-planet-easier-harder/842506/7 "2019-10-27T12:53:26Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Or no difference as far as complexity/difficulty is concerned? It is more difficult but has been done before. In 1968 the unmanned Surveyor VII lunar probe landed at the crater Tycho. While not at the moon’s south pole, it is a very southern location: > **[Surveyor 7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_7)** > > Surveyor 7 was sent to the Moon in 1968 on a scientific and photographic mission as the seventh and last lunar lander of the American uncrewed Surveyor program. With two previous unsuccessful missions in the Surveyor series, and with Surveyor 7's landing success, Surveyor 7 became the fifth and final spacecraft in the series to achieve a lunar soft landing. A total of 21,091 pictures were transmitted from Surveyor 7 back to Earth. > The objectives for this mission were to perform a lunar soft lan... [![](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/moon8_mandel_big.jpg) ](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/moon8_mandel_big.jpg) Before Apollo 20 was cancelled there was a plan to perform a manned landing inside Tycho. It would have been difficult but possible to achieve from a trajectory standpoint. It could only have been attempted during a narrow launch window once or twice per year, also it would have required the spacecraft to be far from a “free return” trajectory. IOW if something went wrong during the earth/moon transit which precluded lunar orbit or landing (e.g. an Apollo 13-type situation) it would have required a large propulsive burn to regain an earth return path. In 2008 the Mars Phoenix probe landed near the north pole of Mars: [https://www.nasa.gov/mission\_pages/phoenix/main/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html) In January 2000 the Mars Polar Lander probe was attempting to land near the south pole of Mars but crashed due to a probable software error: [Mars Polar Lander - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Polar_Lander)