Jeff Findley wrote on Sun, 18 Mar 2018
09:56:23 -0400:


BFS will have three sea level engines for landing. But the extras are
mostly there for redundancy. Depending on the payload, I'd think one
would be sufficient in most cases, even on earth. Raptor will have
about 400,000 lbf thrust at landing. Dry mass of BFS is reported to be
about 200,000 lbs. A "typical" payload at landing is reported to be
110,000 lbs. So one Raptor is all that's needed for a "typical"
landing.

Of course, these numbers might change over time with block upgrades,
just as they did for Falcon 9.


Actually BFS initially might have trouble with single engine landings
until they get the follow-on block of Raptor engines with 20% more
performance.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw