How Long Does It Take To Ship A Annie Lebling
This article originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, merely it's been updated with a related video.
The planet Mars is one of the brightest objects in the dark sky, easily visible with the unaided centre equally a bright reddish star. Every two years or so, Mars and Globe reach their closest betoken, chosen "opposition", when Mars can be as close equally 55,000,000 km from Earth. And every ii years, space agencies take advantage of this orbital alignment to send spacecraft to the Ruby Planet. How long does information technology take to get to Mars?
The total journey fourth dimension from Earth to Mars takes between 150-300 days depending on the speed of the launch, the alignment of Globe and Mars, and the length of the journey the spacecraft takes to attain its target. Information technology really just depends on how much fuel you're willing to fire to become there. More fuel, shorter travel fourth dimension.
History of Going to Mars:
The first spacecraft always to make the journey from World to Mars was NASA's Mariner 4, which launched on November 28, 1964 and arrived at Mars July 14, 1965, successfully taking a series of 21 photographs. Mariner 4'south total flight time was 228 days.
The side by side successful mission to Mars was Mariner half dozen, which blasted off on February 25, 1969 and reached the planet on July 31, 1969; a flight time of but 156 days. The successful Mariner vii only required 131 days to make the journey.
Mariner 9, the outset spacecraft to successfully go into orbit effectually Mars launched on May 30, 1971, and arrived November thirteen, 1971 for a duration of 167 days. This is the same design that has held up for more well-nigh 50 years of Mars exploration: approximately 150-300 days.
Here are some more examples:
- Viking ane (1976) – 335 days
- Viking ii (1976) – 360 days
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006) – 210 days
- Phoenix Lander (2008) – 295 days
- Curiosity Lander (2012) – 253 days
Why Does it Have And then Long?:
When yous consider the fact that Mars is only 55 million km away, and the spacecraft are travelling in backlog of 20,000 km/hour, you would await the spacecraft to make the journey in about 115 days, only information technology takes much longer. This is because both World and Mars are orbiting around the Dominicus. Y'all tin't betoken directly at Mars and start firing your rockets, because by the time you got there, Mars would have already moved. Instead, spacecraft launched from Earth need to be pointed at where Mars is going to be.
The other constraint is fuel. Again, if you had an unlimited corporeality of fuel, you'd betoken your spacecraft at Mars, fire your rockets to the halfway point of the journey, then plow around and decelerate for the last half of the journeying. You could cut your travel time down to a fraction of the electric current rate – but you would demand an impossible amount of fuel.
How to Get to Mars with the Least Amount of Fuel:
The primary business concern of engineers is how to get a spacecraft to Mars, on the least amount of fuel. Robots don't really care about the hostile environment of space, so it makes sense to subtract the launch costs of the rocket as much as possible.
NASA engineers use a method of travel called a Hohmann Transfer Orbit – or a Minimum Energy Transfer Orbit – to send a spacecraft from Earth to Mars with the least amount of fuel possible. The technique was first proposed past Walter Hohmann who published the first description of the maneuver in 1925.
Instead of pointing your rocket directly at Mars, you heave the orbit of your spacecraft and then that it's following a larger orbit around the Sun than the World. Eventually that orbit will intersect the orbit of Mars – at the verbal moment that Mars is there too.
If you lot need to launch with less fuel, you just take longer to raise your orbit, and increase the journeying to Mars.
Other Ideas to Decrease the Travel Fourth dimension to Mars:
Although information technology requires some patience to expect for a spacecraft to travel 250 days to achieve Mars, we might want a completely different propulsion method if we're sending humans. Space is a hostile identify, and the radiation of interplanetary space might pose a longterm health run a risk to human astronauts. The background cosmic rays inflict a abiding barrage of cancer-inducing radiation, just in that location's a bigger chance of massive solar storms, which could kill unprotected astronauts in a few hours. If you can decrease the travel time, you reduce the amount of time astronauts are getting pelted with radiations, and minimize the amount of supplies they need to deport for a return journeying.
Get Nuclear:
One idea is nuclear rockets, which estrus upwards a working fluid – like hydrogen – to intense temperatures in a nuclear reactor, and so nail information technology out a rocket nozzle at high velocities to create thrust. Because nuclear fuels are far more than free energy dumbo than chemical rockets, you could become a higher thrust velocity with less fuel. Information technology'southward proposed that a nuclear rocket could decrease the travel time down to well-nigh 7 months
Get Magnetic:
Another proposal is a engineering chosen the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (or VASIMR). This is an electromagnetic thruster which uses radio waves to ionize and heat a propellant. This creates an ionized gas called plasma which tin can exist magnetically thrust out the back of the spacecraft at high velocities. One-time astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz is pioneering the development of this technology, and a epitome is expected to be installed on the International Infinite Station to help it maintain its distance higher up Earth. In a mission to Mars, a VASIMR rocket could reduce the travel time downwardly to 5 months.
Get Antimatter:
Perhaps i of the near farthermost proposals would exist to utilize an antimatter rocket. Created in particle accelerators, antimatter is the most dense fuel yous could peradventure use. When atoms of thing meet atoms of antimatter, they transform into pure energy, as predicted by Albert Einstein's famous equation: E = mc2. But x milligrams of antimatter would be needed to propel a human mission to Mars in merely 45 days. But then, producing even that minuscule corporeality of antimatter would cost about $250 million.
Future Missions to Mars:
Even though some incredible technologies have been proposed to shorten the travel time to Mars, engineers will be using the tried and true methods of following minimum energy transfer orbits using chemic rockets. NASA'south MAVEN mission volition launch in 2013 using this technique, also ESA'south ExoMars missions. Information technology might be a few decades before other methods become common techniques.
Research further:
Data about Interplanetary Orbits – NASA
7 Minutes of Terror – The Challenge of Landing at Mars
NASA Proposal for a nuclear rocket engine
Hohmann Transfer Orbits – Iowa State University
Minimum Transfers and Interplanetary Orbits
New and Improved Antimatter Infinite Transport for Mars Missions – NASA
Astronomy Cast Episode 84: Getting Effectually the Solar Organization
Related Stories from Universe Today:
Travel to Mars in Merely 39 Days
A I Style, One Person Mission to Mars
Could a Human Mission to Mars be Funded Commercially?
How Volition MSL Navigate to Mars? Very Carefully
A Cheap Solution to Getting to Mars?
Why take and then many missions to Mars failed?
This commodity originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, simply it's been updated with a related video.
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