Posted on 07/29/2026 12:39:37 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Solar System bodies make deep space exploration more fuel efficient! Today’s video shows the Psyche spacecraft gaining speed and changing its trajectory with minimal fuel spent due to a gravity assist from Mars in May 2026. Mars has an average orbital speed of almost 87,000 km/h (54,000 mph) around the Sun. Its orbital motion and its gravity allowed Mars to pull Psyche along with it, increasing the spacecraft’s speed. Gravity assists have been used since 1959’s Luna 3 mission to allow for spacecraft (the Voyagers, Cassini) to reach farther than they could with fuel alone. This assist helped the Psyche spacecraft on its journey to the Psyche asteroid, which it will reach in 2029. While passing Mars, the spacecraft tested instruments that will analyze the asteroid’s composition and magnetic field. This is the first mission to an asteroid thought to be largely made of metal, an essential building block for planets, rather than rock or ice.
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Today's image is a video (about 1 minute) from the Psyche spacecraft shown at the image link.
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Today's image is a video (about 1 minute) from the Psyche spacecraft shown at the image link.
In order to do a gravity assist, the object has to come from behind the assisting planet (that is, aiming toward it’s trailing edge), and skim just as close to it as possible without encountering its atmosphere.
That happens to me in reverse. Mars is making me slow down.
It’s not good for my psyche either.
I saw some women at Walmart in desperate need of gravity assists.
That is right. The spacecraft taking a gravitational boost from Mars has slowed mars. And since men are from mars it has slowed me too. My lawn does not get mowed on time, my hedges don’t get trimmed on time, the weeds do not get pulled soon enough. I don’t have time to get a cheeseburger.
Maybe drawing in the moon, gravitationally, to eventually crash into earth.
There were some half moons going on.
Better half-moons than the Wedgie of Doom. Funny how that gravitational assist thing doesn't work when double-knit (and waaaaaay too small) yoga pants are involved.
Orbital mechanics are cool. It’s one thing to look at planets through a telescope, but astronomers hundreds of years ago figured out how to observe where a planet was going. They didn’t need computers, either. Amazing.
The ultimate gravity assist was Voyager 2. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus all gave a boost and Neptune was the final planet visited ( In order to fly by Titan Voyager 2 actually lost speed) . Both Voyagers are still broadcasting to this very day. By November Voyager 1 will be an entire light day away from Earth.
Triton. Not Titan. Titan is a moon of Saturn.
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