Jake Anderson wrote:
>
> its the most efficent in terms of fuel required to get there.
> effectivley what was done was a "shot across the bow" they lobbed the probes
> out and mars came along and smacked them.
>
> If you are interested check out
> "hoffman transfer orbit".

Thanks, but all of 3 hits. Splitting the name from the method gets a
few dozen more, one of which leads to "hohmann transfer orbit". Bingo!

In gory detail (calculus):
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/HohmannTransferOrbit.html
a Hohmann transfer orbit is the most efficient intermediate orbit
to transfer from one circular orbit to another.

Basically a 1/2 orbit intercept.

Greatly simplified
http://www.marsacademy.com/traj/traj6.htm
The most energy efficient way of getting from Earth to Mars is by
means of an elliptical, quasi planetary orbit that is tangential to both
the Earth and Mars orbit. This type of orbit is called a Hohmann
transfer orbit.


R

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads