Re: [GZG] Orbital mechanics (was List-iquette (was Ping))

["Laserlight" <laserlight@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Crap, prolly over my head, but using the example of Earth to Mars, where 
> we
> accept that there's a close-enough-for-government-work ratio of one to two
> for respective years, how would it be best to visualize the possible 
> paths?
> Assuming constant, handwavium-amounts of thrust, of course.

I'd think you could more or less use a straight line for that (but I could 
be wrong), because the trip doesn't take as long as you might expect..
Let's assume it's NOT at closest approach...in fact let's say it's at 1.33 
AU to make my arithmetic easy. So half that distance (the acceleration 
part--then you flip the ship and decel, so you end at zero speed) is 
100,000,000 km or 1E11 meters. You're contantly accelerating at a slow 1/5 
gee or 2m/sec^2:.

1E11m = 0.5* 2m/sec ^2 * t^2 = sqrt(1E11sec^2)
= 316227 seconds
= 87 hours 50 minutes, more or less, for the first half of the trip, or 
about a week for the whole trip.

(feel free to factcheck my arithemetic)

Multiply the thrust by four (ie 0.8 gee) and you cut the time in half--you 
can multiply the thurst by N and divide the time by sqrt N. If you have a 40 
gee ship, which IIRC is what one of Vorkosigan's ships will do, then you can 
make the trip in under 20 hours.


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