4 ms·
"For a spacecraft to launch toward the sun, it must accelerate to nearly match the Earth’s velocity—in the opposite direction." Source: https://www.theatlantic
by scribu 6y ago
"For a spacecraft to launch toward the sun, it must accelerate to nearly match the Earth’s velocity—in the opposite direction."
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/parker-solar-probe-launch-nasa/567197/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/parker-s...
> If nuclear rockets or reactors are built in space, would this be a possible way of handling nuclear waste from reactors already in space?
If you're not already falling towards the Sun, it must mean you're in some sort of orbit around it. So you'd still need to cancel that out.
- dgrin91 6y agoTo make it a bit more explicit - this requires a LOT of energy. Much more than is typically used on a regular space launch. The closest man made object to the sun is the Parker solar probe and it required a very large rocket AND multiple planetary assists (meaning the planets have to be lined up just right, which doesn't happen often), and with all that it _still_ doesn't go into the sun, just close to it.