I'm not a rocket scientist, but I'm relatively sure that launching pads shouldn't look like bomb craters after the rocket takes off
@thomasfuchs I was thinking that they must have known it would blow chunks (of concrete) and that some of them would be knocking on the hardware (my pet theory for the engine-rich exhaust and subsequent failures).
Perhaps it was the cheapest (hah!) way of seeing what might happen during take-off from planet surface with no launch pad?
@RupertReynolds Gravity on Moon or Mars is much lower, so they wouldn't need as much thrust and are (probably) fine when taking off.
@thomasfuchs I guess that depends on how dense and numerous the rocks are :-)