Part IB Advanced Physics Course
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Gravitational Slingshot
- Basics of Space Flight
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N.E.A.R. trip to Eros.
Eros is one of
the largest near-Earth asteroids, with a mass thousands of times greater than
similar asteroids. "NEAR" arrived at Eros
in 1999 via a slingshot past Earth,
but failed to brake hard enough on arrival,
so didn't get into an orbit around Eros until its second attempt,
on Feb 14 2000. Since then NEAR has been in an occasionally-adjusted orbit
about Eros,
with the last close approach to Eros taking place on Oct 26 2000.
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In December 2000 the Cassini spacecraft, on its journey to
Saturn, will make its close approach to the giant planet
Jupiter.
Cassini's
Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter Gravity Assisted journey to Saturn
includes an approach within 6 million
miles of Jupiter on December 30th.
Cassini's speed, relative to the Sun, will increase by 2.2 km/s.
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Voyagers' tours of the outer planets
- Galileo's
gravity assists
with Ganymede, Callisto and Europa
(image),
and quantitative details of its assists from Venus, Earth and Earth.
More info
and VEEGA image.
More details about slingshots
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Site last modified Wed Aug 17 16:39:36 BST 2005
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