Posted on 07/18/2002 4:13:04 PM PDT by blam
Nasa discovers 'motorway' network between planets
Nasa says an interplanetary superhighway discovered by one of its engineers will make space travel simpler.
The solar system 'motorway' is a virtual network of winding tunnels and channels around the Sun and planets.
Each planet and moon has five locations in space called Lagrange points, where one body's gravity balances another. Spacecraft can orbit at those points while burning little fuel.
He came up with the superhighway by mapping out all the possible flight paths among the Lagrange points to see how fast or slow the spacecraft would travel.
Experts say the superhighway flight path will drastically cut the amount of fuel needed for future missions.
Nasa hopes to use the system for future human space missions by building spacecraft docking and repair platforms around the Lagrange points.
The system was discovered by Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Martin Lo.
He's using the theory to draw up a flight path for the Genesis Sun probe and plans to map out a superhighway for the entire solar system.
Mr Lo told the Nasa website: "Designing the Genesis spacecraft's flight path with traditional methods used to take eight weeks - now we design a new flight path in less than a day.
"The savings on fuel translates into a better and cheaper mission."
Story filed: 11:30 Thursday 18th July 2002
Yeah, I saw.....
So, I claim I was 60% right. (THat's what I get for going for a conclusion without ever having looked at the calculation.)
But I'll amend my comment in this way: I would think that the two stable Lagrange points are small islands of dynamic stability embedded in a larger island of dynamic instability. So, I still doubt there will be much space flotsam there....
Once you get to one of the two dynamically stable Lagrange points, it shouldn't take any fuel to stay there, but at the other three, which are dynamically unstable, it would require occasional small maneuvering thruster burns to null out the effects of pertubations, which would otherwise cause the spacecraft to drift out of the unstable equilibrium.
At least I think that's the case....
It depends upon where the orbit is. Orbiting anywhere other than a Lagrange point is unstable and the orbit will decay without using fuel to stay in place. Think about all the space stations that have crashed.
I don't know. I'm an ex-JPLer but a programmer not a rocket scientist. I recall reading a science fiction story that used that idea as a plot twist. The space ship in the story was accidentally sent through a Lagrange point and the ship suddenly started getting pummeled with junk until they changed course to avoid it. The moral being what you don't know can kill you.
My guess is that there would be garbage there, the same as Jupiter captured asteroids as moons, but I'm neither a rocket scientist nor a mathematician.
And I haven't seen the calculations, so I'm just going with a gut impression; I trust others who know for sure will be able to fill us in....
Low gravity zones between planets -- but honestly don't these things cahnge minute to minute the planets are rotating what you may save in fuel economy you would loose as you had to keep place with your low gravity portal and the faster the planet moves the more impractical this sounds. Say for example we want to chart a flight to mercury it travels around the sun in 88 days I think how many rorations would it achieve before you arrived? 10 - 15 trying to stay in it's gravity well would not be possible at this time.
What then about Mars 2 years of flight I'm told to get there using the straightest route and compensating for orbit -- how would you in a two year flight in this highway?
In theory it may sound reasonable but the application is nott very practical sounding
I'll have to give this some more thought.
The Algoresat, sitting in a warehouse and ready to fly on his inauguration day carries enough onboard fuel to stationkeep at L1 or is it L2 for several years. If they can stay inside a small radius, all that is needed is a puff of gas now and then. There are already a couple of satellites there, though, and I wonder if they can safely avoid each other or if it matters since they would hardly be moving relatively anyway. L4 and L5 wouldn't need any fuel at all, they will orbit forever.
I claim vindication as well -- there is garbage there. Thanks for the info.
The Mote in God's Eye... See there are a few of us...
Why not! Plenty to go around!
So I was right all along. You guys just didn't know it..
No, and it was a really crappy night for trying to see auroras where I live. Oh, well! I did manage to see a little red flickering in the north some months ago when another big one went earthward.
So I was right all along. You guys just didn't know it..
Ah; one of those "vacuously true" scams...... pretty sneaky of you. You probably are hiding something behind the 1st Amendment, or the 2nd Law of Thermo, or something like that.
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