On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Ian Woollard wrote:
> >Not that close; check out the Close Approaches list on the NeoDys page...
>
> Still, it's not the distance so much as delta-v...
Depends on exactly what you're doing; for some things the distance matters.
But you're right, for sample return it's a secondary issue at best.
> 5-6 km/s is no problem if you can kick it early enough.
No, it's distance you don't care about if you start early -- velocity
still matters.
> Or rather, you don't
> need 5-6 km/s if you can get it to intercept the Earth and aerobrake.
That's true. Although you have to get there in the first place, and for
that you do have to pay the full price (although you might be able to use
an Earth flyby, as NEAR did, to reduce it).
> We
> must be talking wayyyy less delta-v than the NEAR mission had here. And that
> was what? 3 km/s?
NEAR had about 1.4km/s in its tanks; its launch and Earth flyby supplied
the rest.
Henry Spencer
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