![]() ![]() In either case, a spacecraft becoming derelict enroute to Mars would not fall into the Sun it would remain in a solar orbit unless/until it collides with a planet, perhaps after one or more perturbing planetary close approaches.Ī spaceship in space is very different from a car on a flat road. If such a system failed en-route, the vehicle would almost certainly miss Mars completely and find itself in an orbit around the Sun, probably with an apoapsis beyond Mars and periapsis somewhere between Earth and Mars. These systems would produce a small, constant acceleration - initially in a more-or-less prograde direction, but then turn around at more-or-less the halfway point to produce a retrograde thrust to slow down enough to be captured by Mars' gravity upon arrival. There are ideas for very high ISP propulsion systems which could theoretically shorten the time required to get to Mars. If the spacecraft fails to decelerate into orbit, it will remain on its transfer orbit, periodically crossing the orbits of Earth and Mars. Upon arrival, the spacecraft will have to decelerate somehow to enter an orbit around Mars and/or enter Mars' atmosphere to land there. ![]() This orbit intersects Earth's orbit at the time and place Earth was during launch, and will intersect Mars' orbit at the time and place where Mars will be upon arrival. ![]() Either way, at some point still very near Earth (relative to Mars), the spacecraft will shut down its engines and coast along the transfer orbit (an orbit around the Sun which more-or-less crosses the orbits of Earth and Mars). The spacecraft might then briefly orbit Earth, or simply continue accelerating to escape Earth's gravity and attain a trajectory which is a transfer orbit. A launch to Mars would begin with an acceleration to at least low-Earth-orbit velocity. It would have almost made it to Jupiter, then stayed in a more elliptical orbit, moving closer to the sun for a while, only to fall further away again as the orbit continued.Ĭurrent spacecraft designs do not consume propellant while en-route to Mars because there is no need to apply any thrust. "would have gotten almost to Jupiter, and then come back toward the ![]() What you're describing, almost happened once, voyager 1 to Jupiter, though the article's final sentence, the author writes rather poorly saying It would either just enter a slightly longer than Earth orbit or, perhaps maybe crash into Mars, though I think a near miss is more likely. What would happen to the craft depends on where it runs out of fuel, but you said between Earth and Mars. When close to Mars, adjustments and rockets to reduce velocity. Most of that time, the engines aren't firing, it's just an orbit with higher eccentricity that takes some fuel to enter into, but once in that orbit, it travels that arc naturally.Įscaping Earth takes a lot of fuel, and additional fuel is used to enter the longer orbit after which, it's flying towards Mars, playing catch-up in a sense.
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