Very cool!!
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Very cool!! -
I remember watching the live video feed from JPL on public access when spirit landed, very cool to see!!! Still find amazing how much of the rocket assemblies is wasted getting a payload the size of a small car to mars...sigpic
Justin Angelli
1985 325e Gazellenbiege -
in reality, the trip to Mars is a lot less dramatic than the video shows, for one, sound isn't created in space, so the whole vid would have been silent between atmospheres. Cool CG though.Comment
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Well it's not so much the delta-v (although to accelerate the mars rover to like Mach 38 does require a non trivial amount of energy), it is more the paradox that you need fuel to lift the rover into space, and you need more fuel to lift that fuel that you needed for the rover, and you need even more fuel to lift that fuel to lift the fuel to lift the rover etc etc until you finally have enough fuel that you end up not running out of it until you reach the velocity you need to put you into the trans-martian insertion trajectory.
That's why the big rockets accelerate soooo slowly at first (because they are so massive with respect to the thrust generated), and their acceleration increases as the rocket becomes lighter. In fact, the space shuttle decelerates i.e. slows down right after it jettisons the solid rocket boosters, because the engines on the shuttle don't have enough thrust to lift the shuttle and the spare tank full. But it starts accelerating again shortly as the fuel in the external tank empties out.
sorry I'm a bit of a rocket/space nerd.Comment
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