Pshaw, like in the classic movie The Thing (John Carpenter version), once Chuck is done taking inventory of and organizing all the cool stuff in his basement, we'll just have him assemble an interplanetary transporter; problem solved without all the heavy lifting. From: Seth Jarvis <SJarvis@slco.org> To: 'Utah Astronomy' <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 2:28 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Last night's lecture 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
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