going to mars question

[epg20]

every one says going to mars is difficult, and , ok, I agree with that, so my question is this, instead of going to mars like this;

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/alex_...0_original.jpg

why not get mars to come to you, we send a ship to mars orbit, and we wait for it to come to the ship, it makes so much more sense, you go to mars orbit and hold position there and mars comes to the ship.

[thekillman]

Well, a Hohman transfer is a minimum-energy transfer to another body that uses this concept.

However, you can't just "hold position" in space. If you escape earth, you have a high speed. Stopping in mars orbit would require you to nullify that speed. Then, you need to speed up again to match Mars' speed (or you either smack into it pretty hard, or gravity doesn't capture the ship).

Then, you have wasted a LOT of fuel stopping and starting the ship. The most ideal situation is simply leaving earth in the direction of Mars' orbit. As you move to it's orbit, mars catches up to you. The speed difference will be very low, so with minimal maneuvering you can set up a capture at mars and enter orbit there.

In movie form:

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/10-27-2015/ilaza3.mp4

[epg20]

Well, a Hohman transfer is a minimum-energy transfer to another body that uses this concept.

However, you can't just "hold position" in space. If you escape earth, you have a high speed. Stopping in mars orbit would require you to nullify that speed. Then, you need to speed up again to match Mars' speed (or you either smack into it pretty hard, or gravity doesn't capture the ship).

Then, you have wasted a LOT of fuel stopping and starting the ship. The most ideal situation is simply leaving earth in the direction of Mars' orbit. As you move to it's orbit, mars catches up to you. The speed difference will be very low, so with minimal maneuvering you can set up a capture at mars and enter orbit there.

In movie form:

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/10-27-2015/ilaza3.mp4

that still seems like a great waste of fuel , you might get a bit of a boost from the earth, but the ship that is going to take people to mars will need to be built in orbit and it won't get that boost, if any thing, it seems like if they are going to launch from lunar orbit the direction they should take is counter to mars orbit, that way, they would save time and fuel, they will intercept each other and rendezvous at an earlier time, and reduce the amount of fuel needed to get there, but since the ship will be powered by ion engines, maybe, fuel won't be a problem, as I understand it, the ship will have a nuclear reactor to create electricity which powers the ion drive engines, so the wait for it, or the intercept method would work better than the Hohman transfer it seems.

[The Flyattractor]

Difficult as in just Way to Expensive at this point.


...unless we get to donate to get certain people shipped there that is.


That I will pay for.