How long would it take to go to Saturn?
Ever since Galileo pointed his telescope toward Saturn in 1610, it became an intriguing planet
to explore.
Over the years scientists have understood a great deal about our solar system and the
universe.
Despite this we are limited by our current technology in many ways.
But these limitations will soon be overcome by humanity.
One such limitation is interstellar travel.
Even though we have sent many spacecraft to various places in our solar system and some
even outside the solar system, sending humans is a whole another task.
So let’s say we decided to explore this beautiful planet sometime in the future, how
long will the journey take?
Let’s talk about all that and more in this video.
Saturn is one of the most beautiful planets in our solar system.
Its rings are one of the most differentiating features.
It is often seen as a hazy yellow planet in the night sky, and feels so close when we
observe it with binoculars or a telescope.
But in reality it is much far away.
Saturn is one of the most beautiful and intriguing planets in the Solar System.
It has piqued the interest of scientists for decades, if not millennia.
According to Laplace's theory of cosmogony, it depicts an early stage in the development
of the Solar System.
However, this is not the only reason that Saturn fascinates people all around the world.
Scientists were also hunting for solutions to other problems, such as how Saturn acquired
its rings.
Why are the circles different colors?
What is the source of its faint self-luminescence?
Is there a greater number of moons orbiting saturn?
And then there are moons of Saturn which are even more intriguing to scientists.
Courtesy of the Cassini mission, (which we will come to shortly) scientists were able
to witness phenomena that had never been seen before.
Titan, a moon of Saturn is also a contender for possibly harboring life.
Even other moons of Saturn like Encleadus make the exploration of Saturn even more exciting.
Owing to all these reasons and a possibility of a human base on one of Saturn’s moons,
exploration of Saturn might one day become humanity’s major goal like exploration of
mars.
In order to go to Saturn we first need to understand how far away Saturn really is?
Would it take a long haul trip for us to get to the Ringed planet?
What challenges will a human voyage face?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start with the very basic: the distance of Saturn
from us.
Saturn, like our planet Earth, has an elliptical path around the Sun.
Its orbit is tilted 2.4 degrees relative to Earth’s orbital planet.
As a result, finding the distance between the planets is no easy feat.
Just like getting to a place on Earth might take varying lengths of time depending on
the path you take, getting to Saturn can take different amounts of time depending on which
route you choose.
As both planets travel through space, the distance between them changes all the time.
They are around 746 million miles (1.2 billion kilometers) away when they are closest, or
eight times the distance between the Earth and the sun.
They are little over a billion miles (1.7 billion km) apart at their most distant, when
they are on opposite sides of the sun from one another, or 11 times the distance between
the Earth and the sun.
Because the planets move into ellipses, distances between them may vary significantly at a certain
point of time.
According to research, the closest distance between Earth and Saturn was 1,201 billion
kilometers on December 21, 1914.
Cassini and other spacecraft cannot be launched straight to Saturn.
They are too hefty and insufficiently strong to slow down when necessary.
Instead, Cassini was heading towards Venus and passed by it twice, once by Earth and
once by Jupiter.
These flybys provided Cassini with enough power to accelerate utilizing the gravitational
attraction of each planet.
Saturn travels through space at more than 21,000 mph and takes 29.5 Earth years to complete
one circle around the sun.
Earth passes Saturn in its spin little under once a year, causing Saturn to seem to travel
backwards in the night sky as our planet zips past it.
WHen it comes to traveling to Saturn, there have been many previous spacecraft that have
been sent to the planet.
All took different amounts of time to reach Saturn depending upon the route they took.
We have already talked about the distance of the planet from us.
Using these numbers we can figure out how long would it take to get to the gas giant?
And when we talk about getting to a planet it’s always nice to talk about probes and
missions that have already been sent to Saturn.
A total of 4 missions have covered the distance to the Ringed planet.
Three of them were flyby missions.
whereas cassini-huygens was a dedicated mission to Saturn in orbit from 2004 to 2017.
When spacecrafts are sent, scientists have to decide on which route to take.
We can get to a planet faster and in less time by burning more fuel, there can be fuel-efficient
methods that will save a lot of money.
Furthermore, money isn't the only barrier in this situation.
Satellites moving at high speeds also struggle to slow down to the proper velocity and settle
into a celestial body's orbit.
However, spacecraft, like any typical trip through a low-lit planetarium giving you a
tour of the solar system, are built to speed by planets with the goal of only glancing
at the planet and taking a few shots before flying off to explore the unknown ahead.
This is known as a flyby.
The three flyby missions were by- Pioneer 11, the voyagers and the new horizons mission.
Pioneer 11 was launched in April 1973 and traveled nearly seven years to reach Saturn,
arriving in 1979, taking about six and a half years to reach Saturn.
Voyager 1 was launched in 1977, and it took three years and two months to arrive at Saturn
in 1980.
Voyager 2 was launched a month before Voyager 1, but it did not arrive at Saturn until August
1981 and took four years.
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was the spacecraft that took the longest to reach Saturn.
It was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn seven years later, in 2004, by utilizing the
gravitational pulls of neighboring planets.
The New horizons’s probe was the quickest to reach Saturn and only took two years and
four months to reach it.
But Why is there such a difference between the time taken by these spacecraft?
There are many factors that influence the time taken to reach a planet in our solar
system.
As we mentioned above, scientists have to decide on the route and method to take while
launching a space probe and there are other factors too.
The first major deciding factor is whether the spacecraft is launched directly towards
Saturn or is it sent towards another celestial object of the solar system and has to only
use Saturn’s gravitational potential energy to slingshot itself.
Before reaching Saturn, several spacecraft are launched toward other celestial objects.
Another important factor to consider is the sort of engine driving the spacecraft,whether
it is fuel efficient or not, and a third factor to consider is that slowing down takes a long
time, so if a spacecraft is only going to flyby, it must slow down, but if it is going
to orbit, its voyage to Saturn will take longer.
This is where the definition of flyby we explained earlier becomes important while understanding
the various routes to Saturn.
With such considerations in mind, let’s talk about these previous missions to the
gas giant.
Before reaching Saturn, Pioneer 11 and Cassini utilized the gravitational pull of many planets.
Other planet flybys added years to their journey.
Voyagers 1 and 2 moved far faster through the Solar System, making their first sightings
around Saturn.
The New Horizons spacecraft has numerous notable advantages over the other stated missions.
The primary differences are that it has the most sophisticated engine available and was
launched on a single trajectory past Saturn on its approach to Pluto.It is vital to realize
that in space, you do not travel in a straight path.
The majority of time spent traveling is spent slowing down.
If you do not slow down, you will fly beyond Saturn into deep space because Saturn's gravitational
attraction will not be able to bring you in.
But that was the time taken by the space probe to reach Saturn.
What about sending humans to Saturn?
Could we shorten the journey?
If we talk about sending humans to Saturn, there might be quite a few other things to
keep in mind, and the missions would also take a bit longer than the spacecraft.
There are many factors to be taken into account.
Number one being, the mass traveling to Saturn.
Robotic spacecraft are quite heavy, and adding humans (along with food and water to survive)
may treble the weight of the spaceship.
It implies you'd need double the power to launch safely.
NASA also predicts that a four-person crew would require 12,000 pounds of food every
year, implying that a four-person mission to Saturn would require approximately 72,000
pounds of food simply to get there, and significantly more to return.
In addition, all of the life-support and research equipment would have to be sent into orbit
from Earth.
Taking all of this in account, it would take humans at least 8 years to reach Saturn.
But you also have to think about the trip back.
All of the spacecraft that have been launched have leveraged Jupiter's gravitational force
to their advantage.
When you get to Saturn, you may have to wait a long time for Jupiter to be in the proper
position to provide power to the spacecraft.
On top of this we also need to reach Saturn safely.
Astronauts would confront several difficulties.
One of the most serious is radiation.
Aside from the constant assault of radiation from the sun, which is unprotected by our
magnetosphere, space travellers must protect themselves against galactic cosmic rays, which
can cause genetic damage and cancer.
Astronauts will encounter a variety of psychological challenges when spending extended periods
of time in space.
Long-term space flight can generate anxiety, which can make relationships with other crew
members more difficult.
Isolation from family and friends, as well as a regular job schedule, aggravates these
symptoms.
Even though astronauts are trained for this, their training takes place on Earth.
When you leave our home planet and witness the blue marble floating in space, your viewpoint
alters.
Thanks to NASA’s new generation suits and the upcoming Artemis missions these challenges
will be perfected and improved upon in the coming years.
As we talked about in this video, there is no straightforward answer to “How long it
will take to get to Saturn”.
Even with New Horizons smashing records and crossing the trip in under two years, scientists
plan to improve on the speed and time taken with stronger engines and more efficient flight
patterns.
In the future the time taken to reach SAturn might be shortened by a lot and interstellar
travel might be as smooth as taking a vacation abroad.
We never know, especially with the rapidly evolving technology.
So what do you think about taking a vacation to Saturn?
When will Humans even try a mission to Saturn?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below and share the video with your
friends!