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The Art of Aerobraking

Posted by michael on from the flat-rock-on-a-still-pond dept.

gizmo_mathboy writes: "Yahoo! Dailynews has the following Space.com article about the risk of using aerobraking for orbital insertion of spacecraft versus the certainty of using conventional propulsion systems. This is all explained in terms of the Mars Global Surveyor craft that is expected to do its orbital insertion on October 23. Skip the wimpy aerobraking and as a prophead trapped in a code monkey's job I say, "In Thrust We Trust.""

1 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Re:...probe intelligence... by dpilot · · Score: 3, Funny

    MC: Bomb #20, please return to the bomb bay.
    SP: But I received the drop order.
    MC: The drop order was in error. Please return to the bomb bay.
    SP: OK, but this is the last time...
    ...
    Captain: Talk to the bomb... Teach it phenomenology...
    ...
    SP: In the beginning there was darkness, and me...

    (Rusty memories of AI hardware in "Dark Star")

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.