3 ms·
Maybe faster to reach it but accounting for prep times to ready the probe and rocket the equation probably changes. L1-3 are actually pretty good spots for it t
by rtkwe 7y ago
Maybe faster to reach it but accounting for prep times to ready the probe and rocket the equation probably changes. L1-3 are actually pretty good spots for it though because they're unstable and small perturbations will drastically change the orbit.
Parking one is also predictable in budgets where a random emergency launch isn't and will cost more than a planned launch just to get things done quickly.
- sandworm101 7y agoThe L points are 'easier' but not any faster. A probe at an L point won't be able to get anywhere any faster than if it were launched from earth directly[1]. And sending a probe on a rocket to park itself at an L point wastes delta-v, as opposed to launching the same rocket directly from earth to the target. [1] Excepting maybe a target that appears conveniently a the same L point.
- jandrese 7y agoThe point is that you can't leave a rocket on the pad fueled and ready to go 24/7/365 because those pads are in use for other rockets and keeping them ready to fly is fairly labor intensive. So the advantage of already being in orbit is that you don't have to go through all of the logistics of getting the rocket to the pad, prepping it for flight, getting launch permission, etc... That's a difference of a couple of weeks.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoHere's a silly thought: why can't we put the spacecraft on top of an ICBM in a silo and launch when the next extrasolar object is detected? The American and Russian armed forces worked out 24/7 launch readiness in the 1960s.
- jandrese 7y agoNobody wants to pay for the personal needed to staff that silo.
- sandworm101 7y agoBecause an ICBM doesn't have anywhere near the power needed for such a mission. A timely flyby of an interstellar object would need something akin to the Saturn-V or Falcon Heavy, or perhaps multiple launches of said. An ICBM is a firecracker in comparison.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoI see that now. With the two booster stages, the Ulysses spacecraft weighed > 15 tons in LEO, and the Dnieper rocket has a capacity of 4.5 tons to LTO. And you do need to get to Jupiter to turn the orbital plane of the spacecraft out of the ecliptic.
- rtkwe 7y agoICBMs could only launch a very small probe into orbit and not even a sun centered one. They're meant for basically sub orbital ballistic trajectories for nukes and you don't need the power to put something into orbit for that.
- a3n 7y agoBecause launching it could trigger a response?