Scientists Propose Cheaper Trips to Mars Humans have sent several unmanned probes to Mars and plans are in the works to mount crewed missions to the Red Planet within the next couple of decades. But its extremely expensive and fuel-intensive to put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars—and voyages have to be scheduled for narrow launch windows anticipating an arrival date when Earth and its neighbor are at their closest to each other. That could all change if a new technique for reaching Mars called ballistic capture proves to be possible. The new method, described in a new research paper by Edward Belbruno of Princeton Francesco Topputo of Milans Polytechnic University, involves placing a spacecraft in the orbital path of Mars, ahead of the planet as it makes its way around the sun. The spacecraft then decreases its speed slowly, until Mars eventually creeps up on the spacecraft, gravitationally snagging it into a planetary orbit, according to Scientific American. This technique would eliminate the big burn of fuel needed to brake a spacecraft and swing it into orbit when it arrives in the proximity of Mars, according to the researchers. pcmag/article2/0,2817,2474176,00.asp
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:31:20 +0000