EUROPE: A new method developed by a pair of scientists for transporting robotic rovers, satellites and astronaut-carrying spacecraft to Mars claims to be much more economical as well as time-saving than the existing method. This method called ballistic capture.
Currently, the favored method for getting a spacecraft into orbit around Mars is the “Hohmann transfer.” After rocketing through the Earth’s atmosphere, the craft make a beeline for the Red Planet, barreling through space at high speeds. As it approaches Mars, its thrusters fire in the opposite direction — slamming on the brakes and swinging the craft into orbit.
The Hohmann transfer is a highly effective move — road-tested and reliable. But it is expensive and time specific. Launches are limited to a brief window when the orbit and rotation of Earth and Mars are just right.
Ballistic capture, on the other hand, would allow a more flexible launch window. It would also do away with the fuel-guzzling that Hohmann’s high-speed braking requires. Instead of rocketing straight at Mars, a ballistic capture technique would see the spacecraft launched out ahead of Mars’ orbital path. It would gradually slow and hold in place, waiting for Mars to swing by — the Martian gravity pulling the craft into orbit as it approached.
“That’s the magic of ballistic capture — it’s like flying in formation,” Edward Belbruno, a visiting associated researcher at Princeton University, recently told Scientific American.
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