How to Get to The Sun

[ISAslot]

For some reason I was thinking that it wouldn't be all that hard to get to the Sun. All you really have to do is get away from the earth, and then slow down, right? The Sun's gravity would do the rest for you.

Well, how fast is the earth going around the Sun? Lets see, the Earth is ~92,900,000 miles away from the Sun on average (according to my almanac). So 2 * Pi * 92.9 million = 583,707,915 miles is the distance the earth travels on it's trip around the Sun, so divide that by the hours in one year (~8,760), and you get ~66,519 miles/hr.

Now, if a rocket were to take off from the earth and go in the opposite direction that the Earth is going around the Sun. And then start to slow down, the Sun should pull you toward it. The great thing about this is that you don't need to exceed the earth's speed, you just need a way to leave the earth, and then a way to slow down.

We could just blast off from the earth and go directly toward the Sun, but we would still have an orbit speed. So would it cost more fuel to go strait toward the Sun, or to slow down and let the Sun pull you toward it?

LOL, okay, another idea. Now you blast off in the same direction that the earth goes around the sun. You have to go faster than 66,519 miles/hr. to get a distance away from the Earth. Now stop. Now you will experience what it is like to be hit by the Earth which is going 66,519 miles/hr. I wonder if we would have to take into account the pull of the sun, because depending on how far away from the earth, it may pull you out of the Earth's path before it gets to you.

I think it's interesting to think of the speed because when you're out in space like that, all the speed is relative some object which you're so far away from.

 

[BooneRebel]

OK, first person to get to the Sun, send us a postcard. But, well, if it's paper it'd burn, huh?

 

[ISAslot]

I'm afraid it's a one way trip.

Wanna come along?

 

[Elledan]

Hmm... being pulled into the sun or getting smashed by the earth. What's the use of it?

But yes, those speeds we experience on earth are nothing compared to speeds in outer space.

 

[MichaelD]

Whoa. This conversation is heavier than gravity. Deeper than the ocean. More introspective than...you get the idea.

Excellent OT post though. When I was a lad, my Dad would watch NOVA on PBS all the time. I really liked that show. I still watch Discovery Channel a few times a week. That is my favorite channel on TV.

Just the sheer size and radiation output from the sun is mind-blowing. I think it takes 8 earths to go across the beltline of Jupiter (the largest planet) and like 20 Jupiters to go across the beltline of the sun. (I may be wrong on the exact numbers, but they popped into my head so I must've heard 'em somewhere).

Any craft getting within a few thousand miles of the sun would have to be almost alien in it's strength and composition. The radiation would fry anything that got that close. Also, I read that the temperature of the core of the earth (liquid magma) isn't even as hot as the SURFACE temperature of the sun! How's that for HOT? :Q Cool thread.

 

[Pretender]

getting to the Sun has never been a problem, we just couldn't find any astronauts willing to explore it.

 

[tontod]

Metaphasic shielding might help to get one there.

 

[Elledan]

Well, but what can you possibly find in the sun? Not much more than in any fusion reactor, I would think.

 

[BooneRebel]

Sure, you can get to the Sun. But who would want to? It's all touristy now, like Daytona Beach.

 

[Radiohead]

Why don't we just send all our garbage to the Sun instead

 

[Yoshi]

Just think of the tan you would get!!

 

[zayened]

Just a little input from an engineering student;

The force of gravity between 2 objects is A LOT greater when the object IS A LOT BIGGER!! The force of gravity from the sun would not in ANY WAY have the same effect on anything that we could possibly launch into space as it does on the earth. Any other physics people wanna back me up???

 

[RossGr]

Capt'n, Sir, We have a problem! I did exactly as you said! But we must'a took a wrong turn, I think that is Mars out side!

Seem's like the slower you go the FURTHER from the sun you get. In order to reach the sun you have to INCREASE your orbital velocity. Check it out,
orbital veloicty

Venus = 35km/sec
Earths = 30km/sec
Mars = 25km/sec

A little know fact of orbital mechanics, speed up to move in slow down to move out.

YOu All looooosssss........

 

[Windogg]

I;m lazy so I'll wait for the Sun to come to me. In about 3 billion years (give or take a few million), the Sun will mature into a red giant and expand until it gobbles up all the planets through Mars.

 

[Wallydraigle]

<< Why don't we just send all our garbage to the Sun instead >>



You know how you pay the trash guy to come get your garbage? Well, when he comes to take your trash to the sun he would want about $1000000000000000000 to do so. Have you any idea of the dollars it takes to get a pound of stuff in orbit? And then you have to break orbit. It just blows the mind.

 

[Radiohead]

It actually costs $10,000 per pound ($22,000/kg) to put anything into orbit.

I say we build a Space Elevator and shoot our garbage out to the sun...

 

[RossGr]

Maybe the rail guns would be the way to go. Perhaps we ought to use this &quot;garbage disposal&quot; to rid ourselves of some nuclear wastes.

 

[Hanpan]

<< How to Get to The Sun >>



At night of course so that you won't get burn't




The reason the closer planets revolve faster is to counteract the suns gravity. If they orbited slower they would be pulled in.

 

[DoubleN]

Radiohead, I've been thinking the same thing for some time. People complain about us having too much trash blah blah blah...why not just have a machine that takes large amounts of trash at a time and shoots it into the sun? I know the upstart cost of this would be quite huge, but the benefits would definitely exceed the cost in the long run. We can always come up with money and whatnot, but you can't really make the amount of land on earth much bigger than it is now.

 

[kami]

<< Radiohead, I've been thinking the same thing for some time. People complain about us having too much trash blah blah blah...why not just have a machine that takes large amounts of trash at a time and shoots it into the sun? I know the upstart cost of this would be quite huge, but the benefits would definitely exceed the cost in the long run. We can always come up with money and whatnot, but you can't really make the amount of land on earth much bigger than it is now. >>



You have to think logically here. To take out a bag of trash, it would cost about $200,000.

Don't worry, there's still lots of room for trash..

 

[hungrypete]

<< I say we build a Space Elevator and shoot our garbage out to the sun... >>



very very cool.

 

[kami]

Here's some interesting info on the sun (no i did not write it )
i bolded some cool parts


The Sun is an ordinary G2 star, one of more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy.

diameter: 1,390,000 km.
mass: 1.989e30 kg
temperature: 5800 K (surface)
15,600,000 K (core)

Conditions at the Sun's core (approximately the inner 25% of its radius) are extreme. The temperature is 15.6 million Kelvin and the pressure is 250 billion atmospheres. At the center of the core the Sun's density is more than 150 times that of water.

The Sun's energy output (3.86e33 ergs/second or 386 billion billion megawatts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons (=3.86e33 ergs) of energy in the form of gamma rays. As it travels out toward the surface, the energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the way to the surface the energy is carried more by convection than by radiation.

The surface of the Sun, called the photosphere, is at a temperature of about 5800 K. Sunspots are &quot;cool&quot; regions, only 3800 K (they look dark only by comparison with the surrounding regions). Sunspots can be very large, as much as 50,000 km in diameter. Sunspots are caused by complicated and not very well understood interactions with the Sun's magnetic field.

A small region known as the chromosphere lies above the photosphere.

The highly rarefied region above the chromosphere, called the corona, extends millions of kilometers into space but is visible only during eclipses (left). Temperatures in the corona are over 1,000,000 K.

The Sun's magnetic field is very strong (by terrestrial standards) and very complicated. Its magnetosphere (also known as the heliosphere) extends well beyond Pluto.

In addition to heat and light, the Sun also emits a low density stream of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) known as the solar wind which propagates throughout the solar system at about 450 km/sec. The solar wind and the much higher energy particles ejected by solar flares can have dramatic effects on the Earth ranging from power line surges to radio interference to the beautiful aurora borealis.

Recent data from the spacecraft Ulysses show that during the minimum of the solar cycle the solar wind emanating from the polar regions flows at nearly double the rate, 750 kilometers per second, that it does at lower latitudes. The composition of the solar wind also appears to differ in the polar regions. During the solar maximum, however, the solar wind moves at an intermediate speed.

Further study of the solar wind will be done by the recently launched Wind, ACE and SOHO spacecraft from the dynamically stable vantage point directly between the Earth and the Sun about 1.6 million km from Earth.

The solar wind has large effects on the tails of comets and even has measurable effects on the trajectories of spacecraft.

Spectacular loops and prominences are often visible on the Sun's limb.

The Sun's output is not entirely constant. Nor is the amount of sunspot activity. There was a period of very low sunspot activity in the latter half of the 17th century called the Maunder Minimum. It coincides with an abnormally cold period in northern Europe sometimes known as the Little Ice Age. Since the formation of the solar system the Sun's output has increased by about 40%.

The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old. Since its birth it has used up about half of the hydrogen in its core. It will continue to radiate &quot;peacefully&quot; for another 5 billion years or so (although its luminosity will approximately double in that time). But eventually it will run out of hydrogen fuel. It will then be forced into radical changes which, though commonplace by stellar standards, will result in the total destruction of the Earth (and probably the creation of a planetary nebula).

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pretty interesting stuff eh?

 

[RossGr]

That is why the super gun would be the perfect solution, First of all a lot of the current cost is getting the vechial with men and life support systems into orbit. With a super gun you could fire a object into earth orbit for sure and perhaps even a highly excentric solar orbit such that it hits the solar atmosphere, (with this scheme, like in hand grenades and nuclear weapons, close is good enough) at a MUCH lower cost, and much safer as well. Since there is no men on board you give this a hella acceleration.

 

[RossGr]

Good stuff Kami, let me add a interesting bit of triva. Due to the many adsorbtion, reemission cycles photons must go through to get to the surface the total trip time from the center of the sun to the &quot;surface&quot; is something like 10,000 years! This bit comes from my QM professor and is based on models being used in the '70s, the order of magnetude should be correct.

 

[kami]

RossGr, wow cool stuff!

And if anyone doesn't know what a Kelvin is, here is the conversion:

Sun's surface: 9,980 degrees farenheit
Sun's core: 28,080,000 degrees farenheit