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It's actually the other way around. If takes more effort to lower yourself into a large gravity well than a small one. Traveling anywhere outside of Earth's gr

It's actually the other way around. If takes more effort to lower yourself into a large gravity well than a small one. Traveling anywhere outside of Earth's gravity means you are always going to fall into a well, so the smaller the better. The problem with Mercury is to get there you have to fall into the Sun's gravity well. The sun has the biggest gravity well around, and Mercury is deep down inside of it. If Mercury was bigger it would actually be even harder to get there, since you'd then also have to fall down it's large well too.

b33j0r 5y ago
Right on. Someone has mentioned aerobraking somewhere above, but for those with fewer hours spent in Kerbal, this may be of interest ;) A delta-v map will usually include atmosphere as a separate route from the raw energy requirements of entering and exiting gravity wells. Some of the counterintuitive aspects of these flight plans involve “very nice, ok! But how do you plan to slow down when you get there?” On arrival to the moon or mercury (or Minimus) you have to be able to stop under your own power, which you have necessarily brought in your tanks. And therefore mass. Too bad the resonant microwave propulsion thing was more likely a poorly designed experiment (acceleration without propellant). But… it violated our understanding of physics, so we’re stuck with bringing our gas everywhere.
- DuskStar 5y ago
  > we’re stuck with bringing our gas everywhere. Bringing your own gas is fine. The real problem with space travel is you need to bring your own roads. Because what you're short of isn't energy, it's something to push against.
  - b33j0r 5y ago
    Good point! Hey, this is just a share to see if anyone shares my interest. In my spare time, I have been kind of been making a videogame based on this question. (I’ve worked on sims professionally, but it is not most of my career.) A “floating origin” and using alt dynamics is nothing new, but I’m a bit obsessed with weird sim physics in games. I had been playing around with a kinetic quadracopter dogfighting concept in godot engine for about a year. Then the “tic-tac UFO” videos resurfaced, and I’ve been having a lot of fun imagining “how those physics would work” if reality happened to be as interesting as what Commander Fravor says he saw. I doubt the UAP news is what anyone thinks it’s about, but I’ve made little simulations involving everything from spacetime warping to matrix-style “if you fly close to c.” Sadly, it’s not a very rewarding game concept beyond “woah neat!” Gets me back to why I started programming, though.
    - sitkack 5y ago
      The physics would be a mechanism, but to be a game, there needs to be some sort of conflict or problem to solve. I think you should keep exploring it. Maybe this is how folks get an intuition for orbital mechanics.
amanzi 5y ago
Ah, got it - thanks.

b33j0r 5y ago

Right on. Someone has mentioned aerobraking somewhere above, but for those with fewer hours spent in Kerbal, this may be of interest ;) A delta-v map will usually include atmosphere as a separate route from the raw energy requirements of entering and exiting gravity wells. Some of the counterintuitive aspects of these flight plans involve “very nice, ok! But how do you plan to slow down when you get there?” On arrival to the moon or mercury (or Minimus) you have to be able to stop under your own power, which you have necessarily brought in your tanks. And therefore mass. Too bad the resonant microwave propulsion thing was more likely a poorly designed experiment (acceleration without propellant). But… it violated our understanding of physics, so we’re stuck with bringing our gas everywhere.

DuskStar 5y ago
> we’re stuck with bringing our gas everywhere. Bringing your own gas is fine. The real problem with space travel is you need to bring your own roads. Because what you're short of isn't energy, it's something to push against.
- b33j0r 5y ago
  Good point! Hey, this is just a share to see if anyone shares my interest. In my spare time, I have been kind of been making a videogame based on this question. (I’ve worked on sims professionally, but it is not most of my career.) A “floating origin” and using alt dynamics is nothing new, but I’m a bit obsessed with weird sim physics in games. I had been playing around with a kinetic quadracopter dogfighting concept in godot engine for about a year. Then the “tic-tac UFO” videos resurfaced, and I’ve been having a lot of fun imagining “how those physics would work” if reality happened to be as interesting as what Commander Fravor says he saw. I doubt the UAP news is what anyone thinks it’s about, but I’ve made little simulations involving everything from spacetime warping to matrix-style “if you fly close to c.” Sadly, it’s not a very rewarding game concept beyond “woah neat!” Gets me back to why I started programming, though.
  - sitkack 5y ago
    The physics would be a mechanism, but to be a game, there needs to be some sort of conflict or problem to solve. I think you should keep exploring it. Maybe this is how folks get an intuition for orbital mechanics.

amanzi 5y ago

Ah, got it - thanks.