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Old 27-10-2015, 11:20 AM
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pluto (Hugh)
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rally View Post
Interesting point,

I wonder what is technologically feasible (and cost effective) these days - just how fast could we actually send something out ?

Is there an upper limit to using gravitational slingshots or could we just use raw rocket power to accelerate them faster ?
An Ion thruster could theoretically accelerate a spacecraft to around 90km/s and I suppose you could add to this velocity by using gravitational slingshots, though I'm not sure how much. For comparison Voyager 1 reached a top speed of just over 17km/s.
Ion engines are both feasible and cost effective these days and are already used for propulsion on many missions, for example on the Dawn spacecraft currently orbiting Ceres.
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