tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593390371951368920.post6894938693806132576..comments2007-08-10T21:40:32.857-04:00Darnell Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10892014932718500845noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593390371951368920.post-51946068820434164142007-08-10T21:40:00.000-04:002007-08-10T21:40:00.000-04:002007-08-10T21:40:00.000-04:00Sigh!<BR/><BR/>I said it wasn't clear to me that you could benefit from a slingshot starting from Callisto. I forgot about powered slingshots.<BR/><BR/>But the rest of the stuff I wrote still stands up.<BR/><BR/>I hope.<BR/><BR/>Sigh!Michael Welfordnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593390371951368920.post-26137283330462111282007-08-10T21:21:00.000-04:002007-08-10T21:21:00.000-04:002007-08-10T21:21:00.000-04:00I'd like to share some thoughts on the idea of using Callisto as a base for a Jupiter gravitational slingshot to distant solar system destinations.<BR/><BR/>First it's not clear to me that you can get enough juice out of a slingshot effect to compensate for Callistos position inside Jupiters gravity well.<BR/><BR/>However, we can send our spacecraft into a sequence of orbits around Jupiter which approach the big moons using them to create small slingshot effects to give our spacecraft orbital energy before finally doing a Jupiter slingshot to the outer solar system. Better yet, it may be possible to do this using low energy transfer orbits. These orbits take advantage of chaotic instabilities near Lagrange points to minimise energy expenditure at a cost of increased travel time. Using Lagrange points of Jupiter and its moons in this way would only add weeks to travel time.<BR/><BR/>A wilder idea would be to use these low energy transfer orbits within the Jupiter system to set up an approach to a Sun-Jupiter Lagrange point, resulting a low energy transfer which would set up an eventual Jupiter slingshot to the outer solar system. I don't know if this is actually possible.<BR/><BR/>Wikipedia has an introduction to the low energy orbits here:<BR/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Network<BR/><BR/>One good article is:<BR/>New methods in celestial mechanics and mission design<BR/>http://www.ams.org/bull/2006-43-01/S0273-0979-05-01085-2/home.html<BR/><BR/>Another article which deals specifically with the Jupiter system is:<BR/>Design of a Multi-Moon Orbiter<BR/>http://www.esm.vt.edu/~sdross/papers/AAS-03-143.pdf<BR/><BR/>I hope this helpful.Michael Welfordnoreply@blogger.com