Road Trip On The Interplanetary Superhighway

eegad writes: "CNN has an article about a new idea from NASA springing from chaos theory called the interplanetary superhighway. It will purportedly allow easier space travel by steering through regions where the net gravitational force exerted by nearby bodies is smallest. The actual NASA news release is here. Sounds like an interesting concept but it is unclear how the scientists will account for every source of gravity, including the elusive dark matter."

Comments

Confirmation at last

[Darth_brooks]

let's look at the facts: Big government bureaucracy. Foul smelling, funny looking employees. Interplanetary highway construction. It's all there in black and white.

NASA is run by the Vorgons.

Re:Confirmation at last

[Emugamer]

PROBABILITY .......... Infinity Minus One that NASA's metric ->english conversion will allow an accurate Interplanetary Highway to be built

Infinite Improbability Drive
Bush's Rise to Power

Computing versus solving

[sjbe]

You're right in that we (so far) cannot solve (in the sense of a mathematical proof) a 3 body problem using nice neat equations like we can for 2 body problems. However it is possible to calculate a trajectory and has been for some time. Takes a reasonably large amount of computing horsepower and a good idea of the initial conditions but a useful approximation can be calculated. Not an elegant or exact method but does work.

The Layman's Translation

[MadFarmAnimalz]

Scientist1: Well, it appears that there's some parts of space where there's no gravitational pull. So, if we chuck the craft along one of these paths, it will umm...
Scientist2: It will probably need less energy.
Scientist1: Right. Since it doesn't have to do any work counteracting any gravity.
Reporter: Makes sense fellas. Now, you called a press conference. What's that all about?
Scientist1: Well, that was it.
Reporter: (short pause) I see. (another longer pause - an uncomfortable silence, actually) Now, seeing as you just worked this out, how did you fly craft before then?
Scientist2: Well, gas was so cheap and all...
(Scientist2 slaps Scientist1 and NASA lose what funding they have left)

IN RELATED NEWS: Liberal Arts graduate? Want to work for the JPL? We're hiring! Call NOW!

Another overhyped article

[BlowCat]

My understanding is that the JPL come with a way to calculate gravitational effects with more precision, thus saving fuel required to correct the orbit. Hardly anything exciting, but it became the "planet freeway" in the journalist's imagination. Another uninformed, overhyped article on CNN, not to mention the "Artist's concept of interplanetary superhighway", apparently not reviewed by any knowlegeable person.

The reference to "dark matter" makes no sence to anybody ever studied general relativity. External gravitational field doesn't vary significantly in the Solar system, therefore it's irrelevant. Even if we all accelerate in the gravitational field of some dark matter, we do it uniformly.

Chaos theory mandates this

[WolfWithoutAClause]

The point is that the earlier you know that you are off the correct path, the earlier you can correct it, the less fuel you need to spend.

Contrary to what you say, the position of the planets is known to astonishing accuracy- it's only over millions of years that they move significantly chaotically, over a few months their position is entirely known.

A small body bouncing around between them is rather different however- that can be very chaotic.

Plotting a course through the solar system is quite routinely achieved. Remember Voyager?

Uh, wouldn't there be *TWO* such points? Think about it.

Do a web search on Lagrange points, you'll find it. There's 5. One between the earth and moon, one the other side of the moon, one opposite from the moon, one 60 degrees ahead of the moon and one 60 degrees behind.