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L'Emmerdeur
- Posts: 5709
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- About me: Yuh wust nightmaya!
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by L'Emmerdeur » Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:24 am
Hermit wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 3:11 am
L'Emmerdeur wrote: ↑Fri Jun 29, 2018 6:32 pm
Seabass covered it. The spacecraft 'steals' or adds a minuscule percentage of the planet's kinetic energy (orbital velocity) to either speed up or slow down. For a much more long-winded explanation, see
'Gravity assist'.
And an illustration/explanation needing no words at all, courtesy the
Wikipedia.
That GIF is in fact taken from the article by David Shortt that I linked.
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Rum
- Absent Minded Processor
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- Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:25 pm
- Location: South of the border..though not down Mexico way..
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by Rum » Sat Jun 30, 2018 7:36 pm
I wonder how fast it would be possible to get a probe to go slingshotting around the best combination of planets over perhaps several years so that it left the solar system at the fastest possible speed (perhaps with some booster assist from time to time) in the direction of Alpha Centauri. Yes I know it would still take shitloads of years to get there. They reckon Voyager would take 70,000 years at the speed it is moving (and I think the fastest thing out there from us). Assuming you could get a probe to leave at 10 times the speed - well even my shit maffs can work that one out. The universe is fucking ginormous!
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JimC
- The sentimental bloke
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- About me: To be serious about gin requires years of dedicated research.
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by JimC » Sat Jun 30, 2018 11:40 pm
I want a warp drive and I want it now!
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
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