In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:33:34 -0400: Hi, [snip] >Robin van Spaandonk wrote: > > >> (BTW minimum travel time to Mars at >> 1 g is 2 days.) >> > >I did not know it was that close. Any idea what the max is?
The simplest calculation yields 4.5 days, but that's a straight line through the Sun (the longest time is when Mars and Earth are on opposites sides of the Sun I presume). Since going through the Sun could be a bit problematic, my guess is that a somewhat more circuitous route would take a bit longer. Of course you could also benefit from the "slingshot" effect using the Sun which would either reduce the travel time, or the amount of fuel consumed (by accelerating at less than 1 g, but still getting there in the same amount of time). Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
