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The alignment was important because it allowed visiting four planets with one spacecraft. So you only had to launch one spacecraft. (We launched two anyway.) I
by exmadscientist 2y ago
The alignment was important because it allowed visiting four planets with one spacecraft. So you only had to launch one spacecraft. (We launched two anyway.)
If you are willing to launch four spacecrafts to visit four planets, the alignment restrictions are much relaxed. You do need to be careful about your launch window to get a nice boost, but it's measured in years between windows, not so much centuries.
- khuey 2y ago> The alignment was important because it allowed visiting four planets with one spacecraft. So you only had to launch one spacecraft. (We launched two anyway.) IIRC the second probe was mainly intended as a backup to the first one, but visiting Titan and visiting Uranus/Neptune were mutually exclusive, and visiting Titan was higher priority, so if the first probe succeeded the backup could be (and was) sent on the four planet track.