Interplanetary Exploration

• USA, Russia, Europe, Japan have visited:

  • Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Halley’s Comet, asteroids
  • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

• Much of our detailed knowledge (this course) comes from these visits

• How to get there with our spacecraft and rocket:

  • Use the natural path (Kepler, Newton) Fig. 4-21
    • travel in ellipse with the Sun at one focus
      • minimum energy (and $$expense$$)
        • Not a “straight shot”
      • Example: Mars (a = 1.5 AU, P = 1.9 y)
        • spacecraft orbit ellipse with 2a = (1 + 1.5) AU draw on board
          • KIII (P2 = a3) gives P = 1.4 y
          • trip time = 1/2 P = 0.7 y ~ 8 months

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