Timeline for Why are probes that tend to explore outer system always launched to go outwards instead of straight upwards or downwards?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 31, 2019 at 17:15 | comment | added | Carlos N | The benefit of earth's rotation boost and equatorial launch for deep space probes is minimal (as a percentage of energy required). Also Gravity Assists do NOT "give a huge boost to the rocket being launched", just to the probe many months/years after launch. | |
| Jan 6, 2019 at 18:06 | comment | added | galaxysh | @aCVn Right, thank you. I was aware of the retrograde and polar orbiting satellites, I guess I was just talking about most missions the majority are in equatorial orbits. There are plenty of reasons to launch into different orbits even if they are just changing the orbital plane by a few degrees. Take GPS Navstar satellites for example, they all have different orbital planes. Thanks for pointing that out. | |
| Jan 6, 2019 at 17:44 | comment | added | user | We do have satellites in retrograde orbits and in polar orbits, so clearly some launches are not entirely prograde equatorial. It depends on what the mission objectives are. If the mission objectives are such that there is benefit from a non-prograde-equatorial launch, or from transitioning out of the ecliptic, that'll be another factor that enters into "should we do this, or can possibly multiple alternative missions give us more science for the same amount of money?" discussions. | |
| Jan 4, 2019 at 1:01 | history | answered | galaxysh | CC BY-SA 4.0 |