Joe, The ISS will have to slow down. It is in orbit around the sun and therefore a higher energy situation than Mars. The arrival velocity is made to be about the same as the departure from earth - 4 to 6 km per second. You have to lose that energy, or whatever you are dropping off has to lose it. My calculations were for ISS, and did not include the entry nor re-entry vehicle. On Thursday, February 26, 2015 9:34 PM, Joe via Utah-Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> wrote: Dale, the orbit would require frequent tweaking Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 26, 2015, at 2:44 PM, Dale Hooper <dchooper5@gmail.com> wrote:
Along with this, if you somehow accomplished this - you are ultimately in an orbit around the Sun. You can't have an orbit with Mars and the earth as the focal points. They are, of course, independently orbiting the Sun. So on your return part of your orbit you probably won't come anywhere close to where the earth is when you get "back".
Clear skies, Dale.
On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 2:28 PM, Seth Jarvis <SJarvis@slco.org> wrote:
This question has prompted 15 minutes of nerdgasm among several of our staff.
Looks like the "delta-v" necessary to transition from Low Earth Orbit to a bare-bones transfer orbit to Mars is a skosh under 5 km/sec.
Long story short, if you magically decree that the 420,000 kg ISS is structurally capable of undergoing the acceleration achievable by real-world chemical rockets, and also magically provision the ISS for a 20-month round-trip crewed mission, and then magically shield it to protect its crew from the radiation received in interplanetary space, all without increasing its mass (hence the need for magic) then you'd need to find a way to strap four or five sets of Space Shuttle boosters, main engines and Hydrogen/Oxygen fuel tanks (i.e., everything but the shuttle orbiter itself) to the ISS if your goal is the accelerate the ISS and send it to Mars. (And if you want a Mars landing vehicle and a habitat for astronauts while they wait for the ISS's next visit, that's extra.)
And just how do you get four or five completely fueled sets of Space Shuttle rockets into Low Earth Orbit?
Ummmm...
Seth
-----Original Message----- From: Utah-Astronomy [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 12:49 PM To: daniel turner; Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Last night's lecture
Daniel, you just beat me to it. The ISS is still traveling well below escape velocity.
On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 12:46 PM, daniel turner via Utah-Astronomy < utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
Joe: Low earth orbit is still deep inside the gravity well of the planet earth. In terms of energy the ISS is only halfway to achieving an orbit around the sun. It's still a long way uphill to get anywhere. DT
Brent, Your answer touched on an issue I don't fully understand. How much thrust would it take to nudge the ISS, which is already in orbit, into another orbit that would sligshot it toward Mars? It's not as if we need to lift it into space. Thanks, Joe
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club.
To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club.
To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club.
To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".