Oh, great question and answer. Thanks Rob and Ron and Robert!! Jerry Flaherty ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Baalke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:55 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA Spacecraft En Route to Pluto Prepares for
> >> >> Could someone clarify something which ahs been >> bothering me for years about this gravity assist >> technique? >> >> Why does the spacecraft come out of the gravity well >> going faster than it went in without thrust? >> >> Why does this not apply to spacecraft? > > It does apply. Gravity assists always involve 3 bodies, > and the relative velocities to each other. > In this case, the three bodies are the spacecraft, > Jupiter and Sun. After New Horizons flies by Jupiter, > there is no velocity change RELATIVE TO JUPITER. > But the spacecraft does pick up extra velocity RELATIVE > TO THE SUN. In return, Jupiter will slow down RELATIVE > TO THE SUN. The velocity changes RELATIVE TO THE SUN > are related to their respective masses. Since the > spacecraft is so much smaller in mass than Jupiter, > the velocity increase for the spacecraft is rather > substantial. Jupiter's slowdown will be very > miniscule because of its larger mass. > > Make sense now? > > Ron Baalke > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
