Comment by Gravityloss
6 hours ago
99% of scifi papers over these things. Somehow people always land in nice flat areas. Aliens' ground vehicle was modified from an airport tow truck. Talking about convenient flat land.
Even on Earth, with weather and generous erosion, large portions of land are very dense forests or very rough mountains.
> Somehow people always land in nice flat areas.
Well, yeah. You pick those.
It's why Blue Origin does their tourist flights out in the desert.
We've even found some specific such sites. Forest coverage turns out to be a very minor issue on Mars.
https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-sample-re...
One of the 1%. Alien famously starts with the crew of the Nostromo (a space mining rig) riding a transport down to an uninhabited moon where the transport of this mining vessel is damaged by... landing on a rock.
And Luke Skywalker's spaceship crash landed in a swamp.
That's two of the most famous sci-fi franchises in the world, so I don't think sci-fi creators are as guilty of ignoring this possibility as GP seems to think.
Tbf if you were an alien landing on earth, there's plenty of smooth flat surfaces available. If you can pick your landing spot, why would you pick dense forests or very rough mountains? Same logic when we land on other planets
So many Home Depot parkings lots to choose from, hopefully the analysis-paralysis thwarts their invasion plans.
> there's plenty of smooth flat surfaces available
Any supermarket car park, for a start.
Plus it would be handy for picking groceries so you can have a cup of tea and something to eat while you figure out how you're going to invade.