Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: VadeRetro; longshadow
From the lead article:
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.

How much fuel does it take to travel in an orbit? I assume this is yet another example of idiotic journalism. Also, Lagrange points are not a new topic. A Google search will give you several "L5 Society" pages.

99 posted on 07/18/2002 7:55:35 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies ]


To: PatrickHenry
How much fuel does it take to travel in an orbit? I assume this is yet another example of idiotic journalism.

Once you get to one of the two dynamically stable Lagrange points, it shouldn't take any fuel to stay there, but at the other three, which are dynamically unstable, it would require occasional small maneuvering thruster burns to null out the effects of pertubations, which would otherwise cause the spacecraft to drift out of the unstable equilibrium.

At least I think that's the case....

102 posted on 07/18/2002 8:21:17 PM PDT by longshadow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies ]

To: PatrickHenry
How much fuel does it take to travel in an orbit?

It depends upon where the orbit is. Orbiting anywhere other than a Lagrange point is unstable and the orbit will decay without using fuel to stay in place. Think about all the space stations that have crashed.

103 posted on 07/18/2002 8:21:40 PM PDT by altair
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies ]

To: PatrickHenry
How much fuel does it take to travel in an orbit?

The Algoresat, sitting in a warehouse and ready to fly on his inauguration day carries enough onboard fuel to stationkeep at L1 or is it L2 for several years. If they can stay inside a small radius, all that is needed is a puff of gas now and then. There are already a couple of satellites there, though, and I wonder if they can safely avoid each other or if it matters since they would hardly be moving relatively anyway. L4 and L5 wouldn't need any fuel at all, they will orbit forever.

110 posted on 07/18/2002 9:55:23 PM PDT by RightWhale
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson