we will soon be heading to Mars, Mathematicians find a cheaper but slower way to get to Mars
Getting to Mars
is never going to be cheap. But a couple of mathematicians have figured out how
to shave some significant bucks off the price tag. Rather than fly to the red planet when its
orbit brings it closest, the craft will "meet" it on the way. The
strategy is called ballistic capture and involves launching the ship into a
Mars-like orbit, but moving slower than the planet itself. Eventually Mars will
catch up and all that fuel that would have been necessary to cruise to the
planet suddenly becomes dead weight. This means there’s no need to carry it, so
you can have a smaller, lighter craft. All of this adds up to a significantly
cheaper journey. But there is one problem -- the journey will take much, much longer. As is, it would
take six months to get to there, using ballistic capture would add several more
months. It wouldn't be great for sending humans to Mars,
but it could make sending future rovers much more affordable for NASA and other
agency.
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