The Mathematics of a Trip to Mars?

hakonhaugnes wonders: "Since trips to Mars seems commonplace (NASA has sent one every 26 months), I thought it made sense to try to understand how the interplanetary trajectory is calculated. NASA's page is deploringly void of intricate details. I found this excellent page, but it still left me feeling that I was missing something. Surely the calculus must go beyond two bodies (mars/earth)? (It seems there are commercial MATLAB scripts available but at $150 it went beyond the defensible to satisfy my curiosity). Are there any curious Slashdot readers with the usual great insight into how to calculate a trip to Mars?"

Comments

Don't Try This At Home

[ichin4]

To get this approximately right, you need to consider just 3 contributions to the gravitational potential that determines the ship's motion: the sun, the earth, and mars. If you are a programmer, and your physics/math isn't sufficiently good for you to write a simple simulation of motion in this potential in your favorite programming language, then you are out of your depth. I'm an ex-physicist, and it would take me about 30 minutes to write such a simulation in any programming language I know.

Re:I propose an alternative

[LabRat]

Nah, that's easy.

1) Cut taxes by $1 trillion/year
2) Declare that deficits are actually good for the economy so the sheep in this country think it's a good idea to both increase spending and cut taxes at the same time.
3) Go to Mars (previously known as the 'Profit!' step)

Two Step Guide to Mars Exploration

[copponex]

1. Convince Americans that Mars is somewhere near Texas, and it needs a big highway.
2. Vote Republican.

Re:point and

[Dagny Taggert]

I would mod you troll (I've got some mod points) but since I'm an American and you're not, you're not worth the dog shit on the bottom of my shoe.