this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] Bumblefumble@lemm.ee 100 points 2 months ago (16 children)

It's definitely harder to decay the orbit into the sun directly than it is to get to escape velocity. But to play devil's advocate, there is probably a way to get them into the sun while being a similar cost to escape velocity. All you need to do is burn prograde to a super high aphelion, ride all the way out there to Pluto or whatever and then do a small retrograde burn to bring your perihelion inside the sun's photosphere. When you then get back towards the sun years later you would slam into it with a sick velocity that I think would be worth the decades-long wait.

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 56 points 2 months ago (9 children)

This definitely reads like one of my KSP exploits...

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Jebadiah is always so happy to spend 52 years only to find himself stranded on Bop.

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I actually sent a rescue mission to save one of my kerbals and the science they had on board, and ended up needing to launch a mission to save the rescue mission....

Had to break it up into three launches, two to build the larger ship in orbit and one to fuel it up.

I learned a lot about orbital mechanics that day...

Total time in space was probably about 20 years...

And I may have forgotten about a kerbals in one or two plays....

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago
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