4 ms·
But it is not some fuel, it is more or less the same amount of fuel you need to accelerate the thing. And now you have to accelerate twice as much mass at lifto
by danbruc 11y ago
But it is not some fuel, it is more or less the same amount of fuel you need to accelerate the thing. And now you have to accelerate twice as much mass at liftoff requiring even more fuel. Of course requiring even more fuel itself. The tyranny of the rocket equation.
- drjesusphd 11y agoYes, it's hard. I understand that. But not impossible. Same arguments apply to Saturn, but "we" managed to get Cassini in orbit. It's a matter of scale, not principle.
- danbruc 11y agoIt is of course possible but difficultly and costs will probably explode ruining the cost benefit ratio. Fly by ten times or try landing once? Or fly by once and spend the remaining money exploring something else - there is so much else. And entering an orbit seems still vastly simpler than landing on the surface.
- raverbashing 11y agoYeah, but Saturn is at approx. 1/4 of the distance to Pluto and it used a different process to intersect to Saturn's orbit, taking more time to get there New Horizons got to Jupiter after ONE year
- tbomb 11y agoThere was a good xkcd what-if on this a while back. http://what-if.xkcd.com/38/ http://what-if.xkcd.com/38/