Constant acceleration space travel significantly reduces transit time to outer solar system bodies like Europa.
the verdict
INSUFFICIENT LEANING
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
2 sources for · 0 against
AS REPORTEDno primary record reached; this is what the reporting says
Retrieved sources discuss orbital mechanics and theoretical low-thrust or constant acceleration concepts for missions to Europa, but do not provide definitive data fully establishing the degree to which constant acceleration significantly reduces transit times.
# Space travel using constant acceleration drive: Earth to Europa
Tags: orbital-mechanics, propulsion, trajectory, interplanetary, europa
- Score: 16
- Views: 4606
- Answers: 2
- Answered: yes
- Asked by: adamholtwrites (241 rep)
- Asked: 2014-03-05
- Edited: 2015-07-16
- Site: space
## Question
Long story short: I'm writing sci-fi and taking my protagonist to Europa. He's got 2 weeks to one month to get there from Earth, give or take a few days. That sounds, of course, preposterous in this day and age. However, it's the future, he's stolen an alien ship, and I need to know, using the ship's constant acceleration drive, how fast the spaceship would need to travel to get there in my literary time constraints (2 weeks-month). Any flight path between here and Jupiter is perfectly okay by me, but the ship will need to accelerate most of the way there and then decelerate before looping around Jupiter to land on Europa. Hoping I don't have to pull out the warp drive to make it happen. Any thoughts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_travel_using_constant_acceleration
## Answers
### Answer by PearsonArtPhoto (score: 14)
Jupiter is 778,500,000 km away from the sun, on average. Ear
Planar High-Thrust and Low-Thrust Orbital Transfers from Earth to Europa | The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences | Springer Nature Link
# Planar High-Thrust and Low-Thrust Orbital Transfers from Earth to Europa
- Published: 23 August 2020
- Original Article
- Cite this article
- Volume 52, pages 421–439, (2004)
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## Abstract
We review analytical formulae for low-thrust orbital transfers from a circular initial orbit to a circular target orbit and to escape, using constant thrust applied in the same direction as the velocity vector, or in the opposite direction. The formulae give approximations for the maneuver time, final mass fraction, and evolution of the semimajor axis. For comparison, the associated results for high-thrust Hohmann and Oberth transfers are summarized. A simple computer program employing the aforementioned relationships is a useful tool for analysis of planar planetary and interplanetary space missions. This implementation yields fast and reasonably accurate approximations to trajectory performance boundaries. Consequently, the approach can provid
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