this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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So, it doesn't work the way you think.
It's only going that fast because it's near the sun. The same way a satellite close to Earth needs to move faster than one farther away. You can't really use that velocity to go elsewhere. It had to lose a lot of energy to get as close to the sun as it is. It would need to gain that back to get to earth.
I'm really blanking on a way to explain this concisely and I can't explain orbital mechanics in a Lemmy post.
If you play Kerbal space program, you can definitely use that to get a very intuitive understanding of this concept.
Drop a ball. It goes fastest just before and after it hits the ground, and slows down until it gets back to near the height you dropped it from
The probe is the ball, and slingshotting around the sun is like bouncing off the ground. The potential energy (height of ball/distance from sun) gets converted to and from kinetic energy (speed).
That's a pretty good answer. I was definitely overthinking it.
A little correction. They would be slingshotting around either Venus, Mercury, or both to lose energy.
Going around the sun is like just bouncing a perfectly elastic ball.
Close enough for this mental model, though.
Edit: in my own defense I am in Vegas doing minor Vegas things.
While I'd really rather be talking about orbital mechanics or some other geek shit, I do get to see an annular eclipse in totality in a beautiful national park. That's certainly a once in a lifetime event.
Seeing an annular eclipse is an excellent application of orbital mechanics! Enjoy!
I intend to. Provided I don't get trapped in the desert for days. We're bringing extra food, water, and eclipse glasses to auction to the highest bidder, though.
We didn't even plan this. The opportunity came up before I even knew that I could take a tour and see this.