• Etterra@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Huh. I would have thought that once they break orbit that the sun’s gravity well would do the heavy lifting pulling.

    • Daxtron2@startrek.website
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      2 months ago

      “Breaking orbit” still leaves you in almost the same orbit around the sun as the earth. You need to slow down a lot to bring the periapsis of the orbit within the suns surface.

      • kamen@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That one’s been sitting unplayed in my library for a very long time. I guess it’s time to give it a shot.

        • snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          And if you want more complicated orbital mechanics there’s a ksp mod: Principia which adds n-body orbital mechanics over ksp’s relatively simple patched conic orbital simulation.

    • dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      The vessel would still have a lot of speed after escaping earth’s orbit, so the trajectory would become a large orbit around the sun. You still have to slow down by about ~30km/s (or ~100 000 km/h) to make that orbit intercept with the sun’s surface.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Imagine that you’re standing on a train and have a baseball. If you throw the ball off the train, the ball will still have momentum in the direction of the train’s movement.

      If you want to throw the ball to a friend the train just passed, you have to be able to throw the ball faster than the train is moving or it will never reach them.

      • Deepus@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Now all im imagineing is a ball floating mid air and it’s beautiful

        • jokersteve@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Mythbusters did this! (Well, the ball fell to the ground, but for a split second it looked like it was hovering after being shot out of a cannon.)