> There's nothing it really has to look at and understand that it can't easily get from some basic sensor data - speed, attitude, location, etc.
Self landing rockets are simple, it's not rocket science, duh! Everyone and my grandma has one.
Self landing rockets are simple, it's not rocket science, duh! Everyone and my grandma has one.
"Where am I, and what's between me and my destination?" isn't the hard part, as it is with surface driving.
The question has never been about the feasibility of landing the booster stages - what has been questioned is whether it's worth doing. The fuel used up during landing is fuel that cannot propel the payload. The landing might fail. The effects of thermal and material fatigue are not well understood. The transportation, refurbishing and QA are unlikely to be cheap anyway.