[meteorite-list] NASA Spacecraft En Route to Pluto Prepares for

From: Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:34:28 -0500
Message-ID: <00e201c73b61$9499ea90$6402a8c0_at_Dell>

Oh, great question and answer. Thanks Rob and Ron and Robert!!
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
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
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Received on Thu 18 Jan 2007 07:34:28 PM PST