Comment on Little Pea Shooters
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 4 days ago
You are gaining (or losing) energy based on if you are traveling in the same direction at the planet or not.
If you are coming from behind (travelling in the same direction) you an falling into the gravity well for longer. Thus gaining more energy. The extra energy is based on the speed of the planet through space.
Conversely if you an coming from the front, you fall for a shorter period. You lose energy at you climb up the gravity well.
0x0@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
So you gain speed if you circle rotation-wise and lose it if you circle counter-rotation wise?
Is that how they did it in 2010?
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 4 days ago
No, it’s hard to explain without diagrams.
But as you fall towards a planet (any gravity well); you pick up speed, if the planet is moving away from you, you fall for longer before you catch up. As you climb back up, you don’t spend all of the energy you gained on the way down. That difference is the Slingshot effect.
It also works in reverse, if the planet is moving towards you. You catch up quicker, thus gain less speed. And spend overall more energy than you gained when you climb back out. Slowing down in the process.
kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
I’m confused, but this doesn’t make sense to me.
It shouldn’t matter whether you’re moving in the same direction or not for this, because ultimately it’s all relative - if you set the planet as the frame of reference, the direction you come in from doesn’t matter - just the velocity and angle.
What I can see working is calculating the in and out angles - if the exit velocity is at a sharper angle relative to the planets velocity than the entrance angle, then your exit velocity “gains” more of the planet’s velocity than the entrance velocity “loses”.
If you were completely stationary, from the planet’s point of reference, you’re moving with the velocity of the planet. If you then did half an orbit, exiting in the other direction (theoretically), from the planet’s point of reference you have the same speed, just in the other direction - but from the sun’s point of reference, you’re now moving at the planet’s speed on top of the planet’s own speed, thus gaining double the velocity of the planet.
The issue is, of course, I have no idea if I’m making sense, or missing the point.
deaf_fish@midwest.social 3 days ago
As others have said, you are stealing kinetic energy from the planet to go faster. Or giving kinetic energy back to the planet to go slower.
So, relatively, you slow down and the planet speeds up or the planet slows down and you speed up.
Batman@lemmy.world 3 days ago
your taking advantage of the planets immense kinetic energy.
agroqirax@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This explains it quite nicely: youtube.com/shorts/kD8PFhj_a8s