It would be quite the spectacular feat to miss the moon and hit the sun. People dramatically underestimate the amount of energy it takes to get to the sun - it’s basically impossible with modern rocketry.
The Parker solar probe would like a word about “impossible”. To be fair, it did take quite a circuitous route, but it has passed through the sun’s corona multiple times now, completing it’s latest close approach just a few days ago.
What’s a few million miles between friends? The perihelion of each orbit does seem to be getting closer to the sun, but the probe will run out of fuel and burn up long before ‘impact’. I wonder if a suitably designed solar sail could have worked as a drogue 'chute to slow it down more?
Orbits are not intuitive. It actually takes the same amount of energy to exit an orbit as it does to enter it. (The only reason we can get away with a “free” return on Earth is because the atmosphere is doing the work for us.)
Once you leave Earth’s orbit, you are in an extremely high orbit around the Sun, which requires a frankly ridiculous amount of energy to slow down from.
Ah it makes sense, I forgot to consider that the rocket accelerates relative to earth, but not so much relative to the speed of the earth itself relative to the sun. Did I get it right?
Right! The energy spent escaping Earth’s orbit does relatively little to affect the spacecraft’s orbit around the sun.
If you’re interested in getting an intuitive feel for this stuff, definitely pick up the game Kerbal Space Program (the original, not 2). There’s no better way to understand basic orbital mechanics.
It would be quite the spectacular feat to miss the moon and hit the sun. People dramatically underestimate the amount of energy it takes to get to the sun - it’s basically impossible with modern rocketry.
The Parker solar probe would like a word about “impossible”. To be fair, it did take quite a circuitous route, but it has passed through the sun’s corona multiple times now, completing it’s latest close approach just a few days ago.
Sure, though that “close” approach was still many millions of miles away from the true surface of the sun.
Not to downplay the amazing achievement of course!
What’s a few million miles between friends? The perihelion of each orbit does seem to be getting closer to the sun, but the probe will run out of fuel and burn up long before ‘impact’. I wonder if a suitably designed solar sail could have worked as a drogue 'chute to slow it down more?
Sure, if we really wanted to “hit” the sun we theoretically could, given a purpose-built mission.
Don’t you just keep going once you leave the earth’s gravitational pull? Or do you mean impossible within human lifetime?
We don’t have the Delta-v. In short, we can’t alter our velocity sufficiently with current tech. You need to slow down A LOT to fall into the sun.
Orbits are not intuitive. It actually takes the same amount of energy to exit an orbit as it does to enter it. (The only reason we can get away with a “free” return on Earth is because the atmosphere is doing the work for us.)
Once you leave Earth’s orbit, you are in an extremely high orbit around the Sun, which requires a frankly ridiculous amount of energy to slow down from.
Ah it makes sense, I forgot to consider that the rocket accelerates relative to earth, but not so much relative to the speed of the earth itself relative to the sun. Did I get it right?
Right! The energy spent escaping Earth’s orbit does relatively little to affect the spacecraft’s orbit around the sun.
If you’re interested in getting an intuitive feel for this stuff, definitely pick up the game Kerbal Space Program (the original, not 2). There’s no better way to understand basic orbital mechanics.