HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE TO REACH EACH OF THE PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM?
The moon is the closest celestial body to the Earth and is approximately 384,000 km away;
the Apollo missions that took humans to the moon took six days to travel the distance from
the Earth to the moon, considering that we currently have slightly better ships.
Would time it take to reach each of the planets in the solar system? Today we'll find out!
We will start from the planet closest to the sun to the farthest, starting with
the smallest planet of all, Mercury; this planet revolves around the sun in an orbit
that varies from 46 and 70 million km between the closest and farthest point respectively.
Remember that the orbit of the planets around the sun is not circular but rather elliptical,
which means that there are times when the planets
are closer to the sun and other times when they are farther away.
The point in the trajectory around the sun of a planet where it is closest to the sol
is known as Perihelion, and the point at which it is farthest away is known as Aphelion.
You should also consider that planets move at different speeds around the sun,
and the farther away they are, the slower they move; therefore, the farther a planet
is from the sun, the longer its years last, since it takes longer to complete an orbit.
When Mercury and the Earth are on the same orbital side around the sun, that is, the sun is not in
the middle of the two, the distance between the two is 77 million kilometers, if we want to travel
to this planet, we will have to do it at this time, when both are on the same side of the sun,
because if we do it when the planet is on the other side of the sun the distance that would
have to be traveled would be more than double. WHAT METHOD WOULD WE USE TO REACH EACH PLANET?
Although in our daily lives, we are used to getting from point A to point B through
straight trajectories, in space, it does not work since the planets are constantly in motion.
If we get on a spaceship and start the journey to a planet in a straight line,
when we finish reaching the end of that line, the destination planet will no longer be there
because, during the entire journey, the planet moved and changed places.
To move in space, it is necessary to do it through curved lines and
using some aerospace engineering maneuvers, but for this video, we will focus on one of
those maneuvers known as "Hohmann transfer." Hohmann transfer is an orbital maneuver in
which it is possible to move a spacecraft from one orbit to another using impulse with motors.
For this exercise, you should consider that the planets move at different speeds. In the case
of Mercury, it moves around the sun at a speed of 169,200 km / h, that is, at 105,136.00 mph.
The fastest human-crewed space mission in history belongs to the Apollo 10 spacecraft
that in 1969 reached a speed of 24,791 mph (39,897 km/h) on its re-entry to Earth.
Have you noticed it yet? The fastest human-crewed spacecraft that has been built moves much slower
than Mercury; that is, in order to land on that first planet, we would have to reach its speed by
accelerating the ship for a long time or using the preferred propulsion method of astronauts.
GRAVITY ASSIST Gravitational assist
is a maneuver intended to use the energy of a planet's or satellite's gravitational
field to obtain an acceleration or braking of a spacecraft by changing its trajectory.
And it is the favorite method of propulsion of astronauts since it does not require fuel;
what is used to propel the ships is the gravitational field of the celestial bodies.
This method is one of the most used to take space exploration probes very far in the solar system;
this is how it was possible to take the Voyager probes to the ends of the solar system and will
surely be one of the methods used when we begin to travel through all the planets.
The only drawback with gravitational assistance is that it is a slow maneuver.
For a ship to make the most of the gravitational influence of a celestial body, it must give a
couple of orbits around it or have tiny impulses from different bodies for an extended period.
If we want to travel to the planets, we will have to get another means of impulse that is
neither the chemical fuel nor the Gravity Assist;
fortunately, in a previous video, we talked about what those propulsion methods could be,
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Once we have made clear the drawbacks that would arise in a hypothetical space trip, now, if we
enter the main point of this video, how long would it take to get from Earth to the planets
of the solar system? MERCURY
Following a plan in which we use a mixture of chemical fuels and gravitational assistance to
reach the speed that the Apollo 10 spacecraft reached in 1969, in the best possible scenario
and using the most modern spacecraft, we could reach the orbit of Mercury in about seven months.
Just as you just heard, seven months to reach the smallest planet of all, but do not get excited,
remember that this planet is very close to the sun and has no atmosphere,
even if we reach that planet, we could not stay there for long since solar radiation would cause
irreparable damage to our body. VENUS
The second closest planet to the sun is Venus which is also the hottest planet of all; if the
hottest, How is it possible that Venus is hotter than Mercury if Mercury is closer to the sun?
This phenomenon is because Venus has a weighty atmosphere rich in CO2,
while Mercury is a massive rock without an atmosphere.
In Mercury, the surface temperatures depend on whether the area is under the sun's rays or not,
in this way, in the areas where it is daytime, the mercury surface can reach temperatures of
up to 467 ° C. In comparison, in the areas in the shade or at night they can reach up to -183 ° C.
Venus, on the other hand, is a planet with a structure similar to the Earth,
with the difference that it has a very different atmosphere,
while on Earth there are clouds of water vapor, on Venus there are clouds of sulfur. At the same
time, on Earth it rains water, on Venus, it rains sulfuric acid and while on Earth there are rivers
of water, on Venus there are rivers of lava. In addition, it has a very high seismic activity;
there are tremors all the time, active volcanoes everywhere. All these conditions cause that on
Venus, the temperature is constantly above 468 ° C at these temperatures, the metal begins to melt.
That's precisely what happened to the VENERA 9 and 10 probes,
which landed on Venus in 1975, but, minutes after landing, some of their instruments
began to melt and fail due to high temperatures and crushing atmospheric pressure; fortunately,
they survived long enough to send us the only images we have of the surface of Venus.
Returning to space travel, at their closest points, the Earth and Venus are 40 million
kilometers away from each other, and a trip to that planet in our fastest ship would take us
at least five months. MARS
Better known as the red planet, Marte is the most famous planet after Earth. However, it is not the
closest since, at its closest points, the distance between Mars and Earth is 59 million kilometers.
But this is not always the case; when Mars is on the other side of the sun with respect to Earth,
the distance between Earth and Mars is equivalent to the distance we would have to travel
if we went from Earth to Venus twice. Every 26 months, the orbit of Mars
and the orbit of the Earth causes both planets to get closer than usual;
this is what is known as the "Launch Window," which is when space agencies take advantage
to launch any spacecraft or probe, they want to send to the red planet
since during this short period Mars and Earth will be closer than ever.
In this way, the ships launched in the launch window that occurs every 26 months
will need much less fuel to reach the red planet than if they were launched at any other time.
Taking advantage of the Launch Window between both planets, with current technology, it would take
approximately ten months to get from Earth to Mars and that only for the one-way trip, for the trip
back to earth astronauts would have to wait 26 months for Mars and the Earth to approach again.
JUPITER Jupiter, the gas giant, is the fifth closest
planet to the sun and is located at nothing more and nothing less than 640 million kilometers;
this distance is more than ten times greater than the distance contemplated to go to Mars.
In astronomical units, this would be equivalent to 4.2 Astronomical Unities. Remember that an
astronomical unit is an average distance from the Earth to the sun; approximately 150 million km.
That is to say that the time it would take us to go to Jupiter only once, in the same time it would
take us to go and return to the sun two times. With the technology of 2022, filling at the
maximum possible speed would take about three years to reach that planet only for
the outward journey; a round trip would take about six long years.
SATURN Saturn, the lord of the rings,
this planet is 1,275 million km away, that is, 8.5 astronomical units, the equivalent of going 8.5
times to the sol or going two times to Jupiter. A spacecraft of the current era would take more
than four years to reach Saturn, that is to say, that a round trip would take
eight years, it is better than the astronauts carrying some puzzles or something to hang out
and that those eight years are not so dull. URANUS
Uranus is the next farthest planet after Saturn; this is located approximately
2,970 000 000 km from Earth at its closest point, equal to almost 20 Astronomical Units.
20! in fact, if you have paid attention so far, as we move away from the sun, the distances
between the planets multiply exponentially due to the decrease in gravitational attraction.
Current spacecraft would take about ten years to reach that planet.
A decade! To go to Uranus, that is, 20 years for a round trip back and forth,
half of human life. NEPTUNE
Finally, Neptune the coldest and farthest planet of all; this one has located 4,300
million km from the Earth, which is equivalent to almost 30 Astronomical Units, thirty!
Going to Neptune is like going back and forth 15 times to the sun.
With the most advanced spacecraft of this era, it will take 20 to 25 years to reach Neptune.
We haven't even left the solar system, and we're already talking about decades of travel.
It is clear that the spacecraft of this era are not ready to undertake interplanetary travel;
we need ships that can make those trips much faster so that we do not die along the way.
For now, it seems that there is a long way to go before humanity begins to colonize other planets.
We would only lack Pluto, but... let's remember that Pluto is not a planet.
But if you would like us to talk about how long it would take us
to reach the dwarf planets of the solar system,
such as Pluto, Ceres, or Make Make, let us know by liking this video and leaving a comment.
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