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What happened to Pluto
Message
From
15/09/2006 10:42:44
Hilmar Zonneveld
Independent Consultant
Cochabamba, Bolivia
 
General information
Forum:
Politics
Category:
Other
Miscellaneous
Thread ID:
01153516
Message ID:
01154103
Views:
11
>i was thinking of getting there as opposed to surviving there which i think will require a quantum leap in thinking, no room for errors are you approach 0 kelvin.
>~M

To get there, an initial impulse is needed (so far, the usual combustion drive, AFAIK), but I understand that a great part of the energy required is provided by a gravitational slingshot maneuver. Briefly, the spacecraft passes Jupiter (or some other planet), changing direction in the process. Logically, it will leave Jupiter with the same speed that it arrived with (with relation to Jupiter), but because Jupiter moves, and because of the change in direction, the speed with respect to the Sun will change.

By the way, a craft to Pluto is already underway.

References:
  • Gravitational slingshot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_slingshot
  • Spacecraft to Pluto: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons
    Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
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