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Gravitational Slingshot from the Sun

Naemeth

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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I'm sure we are all aware of the fact that many space probes use the Planets as Gravity Assists' (Voyager 1 used both Jupiter and Saturn I believe) to increase their speed dramatically. So I was thinking, would it be possible, even plausible to use the Sun as a gravity assist, if you wanted to say leave the solar system at a faster rate than Voyager 1 (~17km/s)?

I know two obvious problems: ie Heat from the Sun, and risk of being captured by it.

But, could it work, and if it could, would it be a far more efficient way to accelerate to over 17km/s than going the other way (via Jupiter, Saturn etc.)?

After all, I'm sure the Sun disturbs many asteroids and comets, and flings them out of the solar system.

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JulianO

JulianO

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After a bit of reading, it seems using the sun as a slingshot to other planets doesn't work, as its the orbital motion that is used. So diving towards the sun you pick up speed, but lose it all on the way back out again.

However interstellar slingshots can be used to go to other stars.

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  • 4 weeks later...
VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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Yeah, they talked about this on the BBC Voyager program not long ago.

Gravitational slingshots around planets work because the planets speed around the sun are added to the speed of the spacecraft. Or something like that...

Quote from wikipedia:

"An interstellar slingshot using the Sun is conceivable, involving for example an object coming from elsewhere in our galaxy and swinging past the Sun to boost its galactic travel. The energy and angular momentum would then come from the Sun's orbit around the Milky Way. This concept features prominently in Arthur C. Clarke's 1972 award-winning novel Rendezvous With Rama; his story concerns an interstellar spacecraft that uses the Sun to perform this sort of maneuver (and in the process unnecessarily alarms many nervous humans)."

Incidentally Rendezvous with Rama (the first book) is probably the best book I have ever read.

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Interesting to note that the energy you gain from a slingshot is actually taken away from the planet you use, so the planets motion is slightly changed in the process ;)

http://www.askamathematician.com/2010/05/q-how-does-a-gravitational-sling-shot-actually-speed-things-up/

Quite right. I shouldn't think that the effects from a spacecraft using a gravitational slingshot from the Sun would have much influence on the Sun's orbit around in the Milky Way, and the kinetic energy gained from it for the spacecraft could certainly be worth the minute loss of kinetic energy in the Sun's orbit.

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Cath

Cath

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Rendezvous with Rama looks like a book I might just read, not read one in years.

Can't imagine how/what I would feel if something like that actually appeared in our solar system - not knowing what was to come after it's arrival etc. A scary thing to happen I think. We have absolutely no idea at all of where technology really leads and what type of beings may be out there, their's no guarantee that they/it would be 'nice' towards us, we'd be powerless towards them/it :eek:

Finding out their is life on other planets is one thing, but having them turn up on our door step in a ship that size is something else altogether!

I used to think it would be way cool for something like that to happen, but the older I get the scarier it becomes to imagine something like that happening. I guess as we get older we learn more of what could be the case if it were to happen - eek.

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symesie04

symesie04

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I miss the programs of the brilliant Arhtur C Clarke. As a young boy I was hooked on the "MYSTERIOUS" tv series and magazines. Although i no longer agree on much of his views on the paranormal etc he was an incredibly interesting character no the less.

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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This thread is now about "Hard" sci fi. ;)

Rendezvous with Rama is amazingly good. The follow up books overdid it a bit. You don't have to exploit or explain everything. Sometimes mystery is best left alone. Against the Fall of Night (don't know wich version I have read in swedish) is also very good. Clarke has this rare talent to create what authors call Sense of Wonder.

"SENSE OF WONDER n. a feeling of awakening or awe triggered by an expansion of one’s awareness of what is possible or by confrontation with the vastness of space and time, as brought on by reading science fiction." - Oxford Dictionary

2001 is also wonderful in the same sense of Rama, ie we have visitors, and they are so difficult to understand from being on a technological level so far above our own.

I honestly don't know many authors of his caliber today. Personally I like William Gibson a lot, as I am a huge cyberpunk genre fan. The Neuromancer books are probably on par with Rama. His short story Hinterlands in the anthology Burning Chrome is also one of those that really delivers on eerie sense of wonder.

Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space books also come close in the hardness ie the realism of sciene concepts. What I like about those are that there is no warp drive, so travel is slow and dangerous. Revelation space also served as inspiration for the villains in the Mass Effect franchise. After having read Reynolds, you feel that other sci fi is bordering on fairy tales, after getting used to his level of hardness.

Sorry for hijacking :)

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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As with every movie based on a book or series Ilike I am very very suspicious. Especially when they've been trying for so long to make it happen. If it turns out bad, there will unlikely be another try at it. Neuromancer is supposed to be made aswell, and Ghost in the Shell is rumoured to get a live action version, something that's a good idea but who knows if the director has the same idea of "darn cool" as I...

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