How Much Energy Do Airsoft Bbs Lose as They Travel

This article originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, but it's been updated with a related video.

The planet Mars is one of the brightest objects in the nighttime heaven, easily visible with the unaided heart as a brilliant red star. Every two years or so, Mars and Earth reach their closest point, called "opposition", when Mars tin exist as close as 55,000,000 km from Earth. And every two years, space agencies accept advantage of this orbital alignment to ship spacecraft to the Red Planet. How long does information technology take to get to Mars?

The total journey fourth dimension from Globe to Mars takes between 150-300 days depending on the speed of the launch, the alignment of Earth and Mars, and the length of the journey the spacecraft takes to reach its target. Information technology really just depends on how much fuel you're willing to burn to become there. More fuel, shorter travel fourth dimension.

History of Going to Mars:

The first spacecraft ever to make the journey from Earth to Mars was NASA's Mariner four, which launched on November 28, 1964 and arrived at Mars July 14, 1965, successfully taking a series of 21 photographs. Mariner 4'due south full flight time was 228 days.

The next successful mission to Mars was Mariner vi, which blasted off on February 25, 1969 and reached the planet on July 31, 1969; a flying time of only 156 days. The successful Mariner seven only required 131 days to brand the journey.

The NASA team threw in every bit of data they could to model the Mars Curiosity landing. Credit: NASA — *The NASA team threw in equally of data they could to model the Mars Curiosity landing. Credit: NASA*

Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to successfully go into orbit around Mars launched on May 30, 1971, and arrived November 13, 1971 for a elapsing of 167 days. This is the same design that has held up for more almost l years of Mars exploration: approximately 150-300 days.

Here are some more examples:

Viking 1 (1976) – 335 days
Viking 2 (1976) – 360 days
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006) – 210 days
Phoenix Lander (2008) – 295 days
Marvel Lander (2012) – 253 days

Why Does it Have So Long?:

A top-down image of the orbits of Earth and Mars. Image: NASA — *A top-down image of the orbits of Earth and Mars. Credit: NASA*

When you consider the fact that Mars is only 55 million km away, and the spacecraft are travelling in excess of 20,000 km/60 minutes, you would expect the spacecraft to make the journey in about 115 days, merely it takes much longer. This is because both Globe and Mars are orbiting effectually the Dominicus. Y'all tin can't point directly at Mars and start firing your rockets, because past the time yous got in that location, Mars would accept already moved. Instead, spacecraft launched from World need to be pointed at where Mars is going to be.

The other constraint is fuel. Again, if you had an unlimited amount of fuel, you'd bespeak your spacecraft at Mars, burn your rockets to the halfway bespeak of the journeying, and so plough around and decelerate for the last half of the journey. You could cut your travel time down to a fraction of the current charge per unit – but you would demand an incommunicable corporeality of fuel.

How to Get to Mars with the To the lowest degree Amount of Fuel:

The chief business concern of engineers is how to get a spacecraft to Mars, on the least amount of fuel. Robots don't really care about the hostile surroundings of space, then information technology makes sense to decrease the launch costs of the rocket as much as possible.

NASA engineers utilise a method of travel called a Hohmann Transfer Orbit – or a Minimum Free energy Transfer Orbit – to send a spacecraft from Earth to Mars with the least amount of fuel possible. The technique was offset proposed by Walter Hohmann who published the beginning clarification of the maneuver in 1925.

Instead of pointing your rocket directly at Mars, you boost the orbit of your spacecraft and then that information technology's following a larger orbit around the Sun than the Earth. Somewhen that orbit volition intersect the orbit of Mars – at the verbal moment that Mars is there too.

If you need to launch with less fuel, you merely take longer to raise your orbit, and increase the journey to Mars.

Other Ideas to Decrease the Travel Time to Mars:

Although it requires some patience to wait for a spacecraft to travel 250 days to reach Mars, we might want a completely different propulsion method if nosotros're sending humans. Space is a hostile place, and the radiation of interplanetary space might pose a longterm health risk to homo astronauts. The background cosmic rays inflict a abiding barrage of cancer-inducing radiation, only at that place's a bigger risk of massive solar storms, which could kill unprotected astronauts in a few hours. If you can subtract the travel fourth dimension, you reduce the amount of time astronauts are getting pelted with radiation, and minimize the corporeality of supplies they demand to carry for a return journey.

Become Nuclear:
One idea is nuclear rockets, which heat upward a working fluid – similar hydrogen – to intense temperatures in a nuclear reactor, and then blast information technology out a rocket nozzle at high velocities to create thrust. Because nuclear fuels are far more energy dense than chemic rockets, y'all could get a higher thrust velocity with less fuel. It's proposed that a nuclear rocket could decrease the travel time downwardly to nearly 7 months

Become Magnetic:
Another proposal is a technology chosen the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (or VASIMR). This is an electromagnetic thruster which uses radio waves to ionize and estrus a propellant. This creates an ionized gas called plasma which tin be magnetically thrust out the back of the spacecraft at high velocities. One-time astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz is pioneering the evolution of this technology, and a prototype is expected to exist installed on the International Space Station to assistance information technology maintain its altitude above Earth. In a mission to Mars, a VASIMR rocket could reduce the travel time down to 5 months.

Go Antimatter:
Perhaps one of the most extreme proposals would be to use an antimatter rocket. Created in particle accelerators, antimatter is the most dumbo fuel you could mayhap use. When atoms of affair see atoms of antimatter, they transform into pure energy, as predicted by Albert Einstein's famous equation: E = mc². Just ten milligrams of antimatter would exist needed to propel a human mission to Mars in only 45 days. Only then, producing fifty-fifty that minuscule amount of antimatter would price about $250 million.

Artist's concept of Antimatter propulsion system. Credit: NASA/MFSC — *Creative person's concept of Antimatter propulsion arrangement. Credit: NASA/MFSC*

Future Missions to Mars:

Even though some incredible technologies have been proposed to shorten the travel fourth dimension to Mars, engineers will be using the tried and true methods of following minimum free energy transfer orbits using chemical rockets. NASA's MAVEN mission will launch in 2013 using this technique, as well ESA's ExoMars missions. It might be a few decades before other methods become mutual techniques.

Enquiry further:
Information about Interplanetary Orbits – NASA
seven Minutes of Terror – The Challenge of Landing at Mars
NASA Proposal for a nuclear rocket engine
Hohmann Transfer Orbits – Iowa State University
Minimum Transfers and Interplanetary Orbits
New and Improved Antimatter Space Ship for Mars Missions – NASA
Astronomy Cast Episode 84: Getting Around the Solar System

Related Stories from Universe Today:
Travel to Mars in But 39 Days
A Ane Manner, I Person Mission to Mars
Could a Human Mission to Mars be Funded Commercially?
How Will MSL Navigate to Mars? Very Advisedly
A Cheap Solution to Getting to Mars?
Why accept then many missions to Mars failed?

This article originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, but it'due south been updated with a related video.

How Much Energy Do Airsoft Bbs Lose as They Travel