Tag Archives: delta V

The Journey Is More Interesting Than The Destination.

I spent this weekend fielding a lot of questions from teenagers about how long it would take to get to various destinations in the solar system, with the general assumption being that if we simply strapped a bigger engine to a spaceship we’d get there faster. This is broadly true but I didn’t have the time (and their brains were too small) for me to explain all the nuances of the situation to them, so I’m just going to explain it to you instead. Lucky you.

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To Vee Or Not To Vee.

I’m back! (Back! Back.) And for the first of many new scienceposts, I bring you a quick précis of what I just spent the last week doing. I feel somewhat tawdry doing this since it’s duplicating my space school research more than a little bit, but what the hell – it’s my research*, and since I had to aim the task at eleven year olds I didn’t get to use all of it.

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You Have Discovered Rocketry.

Warning: post contains moderately difficult algebra along with hints of calculus. But don’t worry, it’s not that bad.

Rockets are kind of sucky for getting into space. Right now, though, they’re all we’ve got.

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