Ronn! Blankenship wrote:
>
>> Using a Hohmann transfer orbit to go from
>> 100 AU to 2 AU would require such a long time that when the
>> ship arrived, it would be populated by the grandchildren of the
>> original crew.
>
> The applicable formula in this case is Newton's version of Kepler's Third Law:
>
> P^2 = (M+m)*a^3,
>
> (...)
>
> If the planet at 2AU is supposed to get the same total amount of
> radiation as Earth, that would imply a hotter, brighter, more
> massive star, whose greater gravity would cut the time down to
> about 125 years.  
>
This is the period of the ellptic orbit. The travel would take half
of this, or 60 years, or two generations. QED :-)

Alberto Monteiro


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