I couldn't get this to link in the article.
Posted on 07/18/2002 4:13:04 PM PDT by blam
Nasa discovers 'motorway' network between planets
Nasa says an interplanetary superhighway discovered by one of its engineers will make space travel simpler.
The solar system 'motorway' is a virtual network of winding tunnels and channels around the Sun and planets.
Each planet and moon has five locations in space called Lagrange points, where one body's gravity balances another. Spacecraft can orbit at those points while burning little fuel.
He came up with the superhighway by mapping out all the possible flight paths among the Lagrange points to see how fast or slow the spacecraft would travel.
Experts say the superhighway flight path will drastically cut the amount of fuel needed for future missions.
Nasa hopes to use the system for future human space missions by building spacecraft docking and repair platforms around the Lagrange points.
The system was discovered by Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Martin Lo.
He's using the theory to draw up a flight path for the Genesis Sun probe and plans to map out a superhighway for the entire solar system.
Mr Lo told the Nasa website: "Designing the Genesis spacecraft's flight path with traditional methods used to take eight weeks - now we design a new flight path in less than a day.
"The savings on fuel translates into a better and cheaper mission."
Story filed: 11:30 Thursday 18th July 2002
I couldn't get this to link in the article.
It's live using the Globe or weekly world news.
I don't belive this story for a minute. If NASA discovers something they have not been shy to put it in the news themselves.
(Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe)
Not according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which describes Earth as "mostly harmless".
And we don't even have one from Hawaii to the mainland.
BTW, aren't those Lagrange points full of meteors and such?
Have they written anything since?
We oppose all government restrictions upon voluntary peaceful use of outer space. We condemn all international attempts to prevent or limit private exploration, industrialization, and colonization of the moon, planets, asteroids, satellite orbits, Lagrange libration points, or any other extra-terrestrial resources. We repudiate the principles contained in the U.N. Moon Treaty. We support the privatization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
But an orbit consultant found a solution. They sent it even higher and around the moon. On the way back they eased into its correct orbit. Not enough fuel to get to 22,300 miles, but enough to go to the moon and back.
The Trojan asteroids are at two of the Sun-Jupiter libration points.
Just means you have to plow the route regularly, right? LOL!
Here's the quote from the http://www.genesismission.org home page:
JPL engineer is in the running for an award for "work so revolutionary that it has changed the direction, if not completely reversed, their field."
Martin W. Lo of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., was nominated for the Discover Magazine Innovation Award in the field of Aerospace for his work on applying "chaos theory" to the design of trajectories like the one used by Genesis, computed using his LTool which has defined what Lo calls an "InterPlanetary Superhighway": paths through space that depend on balanced-gravity points between planets. This helps spacecraft fly though the solar system on very little fuel. Team member Kathleen Howell, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, joins him in his nomination.
Meet Martin Lo in this interview that takes the reader along the "InterPlanetary Superhighway" and into the changing world of engineering.
The 1984 Moon Treaty was not adopted. However, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty was, and that is the one they should be going after.
It's a little journalistic hyperbole, but it is basically true. The highway is a low fuel-cost way of getting around. Not fast, but cheap.
This is just going to make it easier for thos Motes to get us.
if an object reaches that point, why won't it just continue on it's trajectory? there's no opposing force to bring it to a stop, like retrojets on a craft. am i missing something?
Well, I heard it from DISCOVER magazine first. NASA's been leaving the promos to the pros lately.
Great!, Real Estate!!
Hmmmm.....
I could build a "truck stop" or a 7/11...
I have a friend in India who I could tap into for a labor pool.....
If only I can get there soon enough......
I hope it's an autobahn... ;-)
Gravity Sink?
But what causes the junk to stop?
Perhaps it settles in after several 100 millon orbits over a million years....
Basically true. Something extra is needed. There are a few extras out there, subtle, but enough to cause capture of a stray now and then. Other passing gravitational fields, solar wind, collisions, what else?
"You take the high road and I'll take the Lo road, and I'll get to Saturn befooooore ye!"
Apparently L4 and L5 type Lagrange points, the kind that occur 60 degrees before and after an orbiting planet on the orbital path, act like virtual masses. They can capture junk and hold it without any extra lucky inertia-robbing collisions.
im trying, but it's escaping me. what's stumping me is the 60 degree thing. it would seem that a more massive planet would generate a L point at a farther distance along the orbital path. I wonder if Lagrange is assuming that the two bodies are the same mass?but now, I might be mistaken, a hmm hmm hmm!
The Jupiter-Lo method has been dubbed "J-Lo". Its use of "gravitational fuzzy boundaries" has been acclaimed as a pioneering application of fuzzy math, and will short-cut the Middle East peace process and formation of boundaries of the proposed Palestinian state from "billions and billions of eons" to "how will we fill the rest of the time till lunch?"
The combined pull of, say, the sun and Jupiter will create two regions of attraction at points ahead of and behind Jupiter (or any other planet) which can capture mass. Lagrange worked out the math. He has the details if you can dig him up.
Yes, they do, L4 and L5. Objects in there have elongated, kidney-bean shaped orbits. But an object passing into the region would just shoot right on out the other side if it doesn't hit something hit or if its speed is too high for solar wind to make a difference. Once it is in orbit, it will stay, generally, although objects can escape on their own, too.
I hope it's an autobahn... ;-)
Of course it will be. Werner Von Braun always said that we got to the moon first because our Germans were better than their (Russia's) Germans.
We're out here. Long time reader of all their stuff, individually and collaboratively. Subscribe to Pournelle's site. It's about the only thing I look at regularly, other than FR and weather radar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.