Subject:
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Re: Transit Time to Mars
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.geek
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Date:
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Wed, 15 Dec 1999 23:05:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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144 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.geek, Steve Bliss writes:
> Basic physics word problem, which I thought of because of NASA's publicity • about
> renewed Mars exploration, and putting people on Mars:
>
> If a spaceship could accelerate at a constant rate of 1G, how long would it • take
> to get safely to Mars?
>
> Assume the distance to Mars is 36 million miles.
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> Show your work. ;)
>
> I worked out an answer to this, but it was too low to believe.
if you thought THAT was amazing, try it to Pluto... or to Alpha Centauri!
RAH (1) did a science fact article on this, way before most of us were born.
It drives home how fast you can go if you can just keep accelerating. But
unless you can come up with a reactionless drive, you'll never carry enough
reaction mass to accelerate that much for that long.
1 - Robert A Heinlein, arguably the best (if somewhat inconsistent) SF author
ever. You either love him or hate him. Ignore his last 5 or so books when
evaluating him, though.
+Lar
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Transit Time to Mars
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| (...) Of course, when you're going *that* far, you also have to count relativistic effects. Is '1g of acceleration' from the frame of the guy on the rocket, of the frame of the guy on Earth? (Important difference...) And then you have to figure out (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Transit Time to Mars
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| Basic physics word problem, which I thought of because of NASA's publicity about renewed Mars exploration, and putting people on Mars: If a spaceship could accelerate at a constant rate of 1G, how long would it take to get safely to Mars? Assume the (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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