Fastest Spacecraft Ever?!?, Which one is it? |
Fastest Spacecraft Ever?!?, Which one is it? |
Jan 24 2006, 08:43 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 648 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Subotica Member No.: 384 |
There was statement that recently launched New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft to leave Earth. The velocity was 16.2 km/s relative to the Earth according to "Jonathan's Space Report".
QUOTE After the Star 48B burn, the payload had reached escape velocity not only with respect to the Earth but also relative to the Sun (The velocity was 16.2 km/s relative to the Earth and I estimate an asymptotic velocity of 12.3 km/s, corresponding to 42.6 km/s relative to the Sun... So: New Horizons is fastest to leave Earth at 16.2 km/s (relative to Earth). Voyager-1 is fastest to leave Solar System at 17.374 km/s (relative to Sun). Now that is OK. but what is this? Today's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" features launch of New Horizons and in text bellow image is one particularly interesting link to "Guinness world of records"... Guinness world of records; There "Mr. Guinness" claims that the fastest spacecrafts ever, were two Solar probes "Helios 1&2"...According to him those spacecrafts had speed of 252,800 km/h which is staggering 70.2 km/s...BUT RELATIVE TO WHAT????? Can somebody explain this? -------------------- The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.
Jules H. Poincare My "Astrophotos" gallery on flickr... |
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May 2 2006, 08:12 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Yeah -- you'd end up with a pretty ragged, hole-ridden sail/solar panel by the time you got out to the Kuiper Belt. How are you going to create a really, really thin/lightweight sail/solar panel that can stand up to the high-energy dust impacts it's going to face? Gonna redirect some of that energy into intense magnetic fields that divert dust particles electrostatically?
Before we get too involved in discussions of new propulsion technologies, I will make the cautionary noise, here, that when Mike Griffin went before Congress last week, he was asked point-blank about new propulsion technology research. He said that NASA's immediate goals (including the full range of VSE goals) do not require any new propulsion technologies. He said that almost every NASA program, with the exception of the Shuttle/ISS wind-down, has been cut or delayed, including propulsion technology research. He said that there will be *no* new propulsion research for a decade or more. BTW, he also said that, since Congress and this Administration refused to give NASA any additional monies to repair damage to Michoud, the Stennis Space Center, and the Kennedy Space Center incurred during last year's hurricane season, he was even stealing from the Shuttle/ISS funds to cover a roughly half-billion-dollar repair bill. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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May 2 2006, 09:19 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Before we get too involved in discussions of new propulsion technologies, I will make the cautionary noise, here, that when Mike Griffin went before Congress last week, he was asked point-blank about new propulsion technology research. He said that NASA's immediate goals (including the full range of VSE goals) do not require any new propulsion technologies. He said that almost every NASA program, with the exception of the Shuttle/ISS wind-down, has been cut or delayed, including propulsion technology research. He said that there will be *no* new propulsion research for a decade or more. What a frightening and depressing statement. Does Griffin think that just because he won't let NASA engineers and space scientists develop new concepts of propulsion that other equally talented and visionary people in other countries won't pursue this course? Or that he might drive US talent to more receptive places? The next time I hear Griffin or anyone else say that the USA must remain at the forefront of space exploration and technology, I will remember this statement. It will be sadly ironic if in 2025 we have a handful of astronauts on the Moon while the other space nations are sending probes to every planet in the Sol system and beyond. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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May 3 2006, 01:41 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 307 Joined: 16-March 05 Member No.: 198 |
What a frightening and depressing statement. Does Griffin think that just Why blame Griffin? These engineers and space scientists cannot develop new concepts of propulsion if Congress won't provide NASA with the funding necessary to allow them to proceed.because he won't let NASA engineers and space scientists develop new concepts of propulsion that other equally talented and visionary people in other countries won't pursue this course? Or that he might drive US talent to more receptive places? Unless, of course, you would prefer Griffin take more money from (say) space science to make up the shortfall. It will be sadly ironic if in 2025 we have a handful of astronauts on the Well, America has already sent probes "to every planet in the Sol system and beyond", has it not? By sending probes out to those same planets those other space nations would merely be catching up.Moon while the other space nations are sending probes to every planet in the Sol system and beyond. What I presume you *really* mean--if, that is, those other nations are really going to steal a march on America--is that by 2025, when America (may) have "a handful of astronauts" plodding around on the Moon (much as once upon a time it had a handful paddling around in LEO aboard the ISS--until it was decided LEO was too boring a place and the Moon a more exciting destination) those other nations were planning to send astronauts of their own to destinations more exciting than the boring old Moon: "every planet in the Sol system and beyond". That may well happen. After all, once upon a time Spain and Portugal led the way in Europe's exploration of the world, finding routes around the Cape of Hope to India and across the Atlantic to the New World. Yet eventually they were eclipsed by other European nations such as France and Britain. America (and Russia) would be merely following in their footsteps by commencing the world's exploration of outer space only to be eclipsed in time by johnny-come-latelies. ====== Stephen |
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