The
Daily Telegraph: US scientists are trying to map the
complex interplay of attractive forces between planets and
moons in order to reduce the amount of fuel used by spacecraft.
The
Genesis
spacecraft used this technique in 2004 to cut its fuel load
by a factor of ten.Depicted by computer graphics, the optimal
journey pathways look like strands of spaghetti that wrap
around planetary bodies and snake between them.The pathways
connect sites called
Lagrange
points where gravitational forces balance out.
Virginia
Tech's Shane Ross said: "I like to think of [these tubes]
as being similar to ocean currents, but they are gravitational
currents.""If you're in a parking orbit round the Earth, and
one of them intersects your trajectory, you just need enough
fuel to change your velocity and now you're on a new trajectory
that is free.""It's not the same as a [gravitational]
slingshot," said Ross. "Slingshots don't put you in orbit round
a moon, whereas this does."
