When to Launch a Mars Mission

Рет қаралды 47,511

3 жыл бұрын

When's the right time to launch a spacecraft from Earth to Mars? Ideally, we want to find the perfect launch window when the planets are aligned for a journey that will minimize the amount of fuel needed. In celebration of NASA's launch of Perseverance and the 8th anniversary of the landing of Curiosity, we explore some orbital mechanics, the Hohmann transfer orbit, and what it takes to get a spacecraft to Mars.
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Spanning Tree is an educational video series about computer science and mathematics. See more at spanningtree.me
To be notified when a new video is released, sign up for the Spanning Tree mailing list at spanningtree.substack.com/
Spanning Tree is created by Brian Yu. brianyu.me/
Email me at brian@spanningtree.me to suggest a future topic.
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Images textures courtesy of www.solarsystemscope.com/

Пікірлер: 76

@peNdantry 3 жыл бұрын

Went looking for a good explanation of launch windows; found a few far too overcomplicated examples, and then found this. Perfect. Kudos!

@Delibro Жыл бұрын

I just press the power button to launch Windows.

@peNdantry Жыл бұрын

@@Delibro Nice. Though, of course, nowadays that's not enough; you then have to wait (unless you have a brand-spanking new PC) a ludicrous amount of time for the pretty image and Cortana's embellishments (unless you've disabled these 'enhancements', as I have) to load before the user login dialog is presented, and then even longer for startup applications to settle down....

@Delibro Жыл бұрын

@@peNdantry Yes, thats because crap is being sold and many OSs are bad. My Computer is 11 years old but is ready when I press the button in less than the monitor awakes. And it was rather cheap back then. It only takes the right parts.

@peNdantry Жыл бұрын

@@Delibro Colour me intrigued: my guess is that either you're using some other OS than windoze, or else you've installed a solid state HDD to host the OS (something I've been considering, but I lack the round tuits to do atm). My PC is only a couple of years younger than yours... it would be great to get it to boot up faster.

@Delibro Жыл бұрын

@@peNdantry 🙂Of cause I'm using a solid state disc, why should someone use technology from 20 years ago, especially if that part had changed more than any other part in a PC.

@user-X8787X Жыл бұрын

POV, you are searching how to go to duna

@khyaatisrivastava4720 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent work Brian!.. I never knew that cs50's preceptor is such a well-rounded person. I also absolutely love your cs50w & AI lectures! keep it up man...

@SpanningTree 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed!

@fallendown8828 3 жыл бұрын

Wow this is amazing! I mean i know all this stuff but explaing to other is PAINFUL. But now i can just show this video! Thank you, you are making my job a lot easier 👍

@MarsMatters Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for making this amazing video! These graphics are extremely useful for demonstrating the concept :)

@indylockheart3082 3 жыл бұрын

Nice. I like the content you choose to dive into. Sub earned brother.

@sumandangol5717 3 жыл бұрын

You are so talented sir!

@avlfcrb5519 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation for everyone to get it. Congrats!

@BradiKal61 2 жыл бұрын

this is a great video that simply explains some basic space travel information that the average person just isnt going to be aware of. Space X will no doubt be doing a flurry of crewed launches during the optimal launch windows as it builds its Mars colony but im wondering if unmanned cargo missions will happen at times other than the busiest launch times

@DiamaraldGaming 2 жыл бұрын

this the best video on this topic thanks

@richardnguyen6098 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation

@londislagerhound Жыл бұрын

Brilliant.

@Hobojoe529 Жыл бұрын

It can't be that complicated. It's not like it's rocket science or...never mind.

@Knyex Жыл бұрын

So, this is the optimal launch window in terms of fuel efficiency, but what about travel time? If we assumed fuel efficiency is no issue (perhaps in the future we've designed an ultra-efficient engine), when would be the optimal launch window to reach mars as fast as possible? Intuitively I wanna say it'd be "a little after opposition happens" so that if the rocket travels in a straight line as if mars and earth were in opposition mars will be where the ship is aiming by the time the ship gets there, but idk how right or wrong that is

@lunarscapes6016 Жыл бұрын

Well that’s still hard because the rocket is launching from earth, which is moving, so it keeps earth’s momentum and also is affected by earth, mars, and the sun’s gravity more at different points along the path. Also, unlike running from point A to point B, the rocket does not stop moving when it stops burning fuel. This means that you have to accelerate really fast in the opposite direction to slow down. Right now, this is avoided by simply changing orbits so that you don’t have to slow down anywhere near as much and can instead just orbit the planet. All that’s to say I don’t know, but I do know that it’s not that easy to figure out lol

@lautaromelchiori4606 3 жыл бұрын

Great vid bro! loved the animations, how do you make them btw?

@SpanningTree 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed the video! These videos are created with Affinity Designer for graphics design, Blender for modeling and animation, plus some Python scripts for generating animations I've written myself.

@lautaromelchiori4606 3 жыл бұрын

@@SpanningTree cool! keep it up with the content!!

@dontbesaid 3 жыл бұрын

Very informative and great animations.. you really answered a burning question I've had for a very long time... Thanks guys and keep up the great work!

@carango1798 Жыл бұрын

What is the duration of the launch window?

@HarshPatel-iy5qe 3 жыл бұрын

Bruhh your content deserve at least more than 10 million subscribers And it will happen just don't stop making videos Ik on KZfaq people like cringy contenet And these type of knowledge layer add-on are not getting more views but its changing now All the best bro, keep going👍🙏😊

@realbrickbread Жыл бұрын

A little game called Space flight simulator is a great way to experience it yourself and visualise it!

@BrianStDenis-pj1tq 6 ай бұрын

An interesting factor is speed control. The first one I thought of is when the rocket eventually reaches Mars, its going too fast to get captured in a Mars orbit, so it has to slow down there. And, when its leaving Mars to return to earth, its orbit is way out wide, so it needs to accelerate away from Mars, but to end up at a slower speed (relative to the Sun) so it can have an elliptical solar orbit whose perihelion is close to earth. But again, after falling towards the sun in this orbit, that speed (relative to earth) is too high so the rocket has to slow way way down to get captured in earth's orbit.

@Tinker4bell Жыл бұрын

Who else wanted to see the line go through the sun? 0:12

@NoobieCuteee 2 жыл бұрын

yessirrrrr

@sethapex9670 Жыл бұрын

What about aldrin cyclers?

@uvbe Жыл бұрын

this is oddly similar to the microsoft paint explanation i just made to a friend before deciding on looking for a better-made one lol

@anuragbanjare4429 2 жыл бұрын

But didn't talk about swing motion of rocket when a rocket try to go into gravitational field of other planets

@kristinhorne9655 3 жыл бұрын

this is very difficult for the flat earth adherents

@FREEDOM_OR_DEATH_ Жыл бұрын

God I don't know what's more annoying people who believe in flat earth or people who feel the need to crap on them every astronomy video.

@volt1068 Жыл бұрын

@@FREEDOM_OR_DEATH_ one group outnumbers the other greatly... and it isn't the flat earthers.

@cycrothelargeplanet Жыл бұрын

@@FREEDOM_OR_DEATH_ absolutely the latter

@randomaccount6146 10 ай бұрын

@@volt1068I barely see people shitting on flat earthers first. But on most astronomy videos I see comments like "fake" or "space doesnt exist" or "the earth is flat" followed with a random insult like "you are all sheep/stupid etc." And then ending with some emojies.

@volt1068 10 ай бұрын

@@randomaccount6146 maybe you're using a different internet than me, but I've never had a piece of unironically flat earth content recommended to me in my life.

@dogshack2 Жыл бұрын

Is the orientation of the rocket accurate as it leaves earth? Wouldn’t it just need to accelerate away from the orbital center and the orbital momentum of the earth would continue with the rocket as it leaves earth. The rocket has no opposing orbital friction or force acting on it necessitating lateral acceleration. Right?

@OutbackCatgirl Жыл бұрын

This animation is very stylised - in space, all movement is approximately given as smooth curves. You start out pointing up, the angular velocity you inherit from the earth rotating affects your angular velocity, but not enough to eliminate the need to turn your rocket "sideways" as it saves a vast amount of fuel compared to just pointing away from the earth.

@OutbackCatgirl Жыл бұрын

It's basically like swinging a bucket on a string before releasing it, vs just throwing the bucket. One takes more energy due to the gravity well of the earth :D

@OutbackCatgirl Жыл бұрын

*note: massive oversimplification, consider this a rough analogy

@azhari7968 Жыл бұрын

I wonder if flat earthers can even make sense of this explanation

@RahulSharma-bj2sl Жыл бұрын

Escape velocity is root(2GM/R)

@ZDVictim 7 ай бұрын

the oversimplification (skipping low earth orbit) hurts my brain. ksp has ruined me...

@WitchMedusa Жыл бұрын

Now perform these simulations using only a TI-84 calculator

@rogervanbommel1086 Жыл бұрын

It's just orbital math, nothing too complicated, not rocket science or anything, OH wait.....

@borutgoli840 Жыл бұрын

orbital mechanics is not a complex task, not by todays standards. You have a video game that makes all the calculation instantly so you can see what manevours your rocket has to make in order to travel to the planet.

@randomaccount6146 10 ай бұрын

The difficult parts imo are the transfer timings + gravity assist timings

@chrisgunz9495 Жыл бұрын

When me gonna go to moon and sun me ded

@novmoon5760 2 жыл бұрын

Ooops, confused.

@ragegamer9279 3 жыл бұрын

Video title like everyone is a astrounot and have rockets

@sangeethreddychejerla6527 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, it's mind-boggling how far human evolution has progressed to this point. Looking back, human evolution began with apes.

@ethanbuxton8372 Жыл бұрын

Though we have come far technologically, evolution was not a factor. We have no proof of evolution in practice, thus it being a theory. These advancements point towards a greater force behind our universe. Everything operates like clock work. That is something that can not come out of the complete randomness that is suggested by the theory of evolution. We have an all-knowing creator and these advancements allow us to see only a portion of the creation that's out there. It is actually pretty mind blowing when you consider how little we truly know about our entire existence. Kinda interesting, huh?

@azhari7968 Жыл бұрын

@@ethanbuxton8372 are you being serious? I can't wrap my mind around how there are people that still can't accept the concept of evolution these days. the concept of religions and supernatural beings are not even relevant anymore in this age

@ethanbuxton8372 Жыл бұрын

@@azhari7968 I accept the concept of evolution, which is why I find it to be Incorrect. We have fewer answers for our existence when we use evolution as an explanation. If you look through the lense of an intelligent creator, you'll find that our historical accounts of where we've been as a society makes far more sense. Our world contains too many elements of design and order to think that it wasn't created through design and order. If there are particular aspects you're hesitant to consider, feel free to ask. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I'm willing to talk things through. None of this needs to be an attack on either of our persons nor reasonings.

@ender0998 Жыл бұрын

@@azhari7968 Mate didn't mention anything about religion and u decided to shit on it.

@randomaccount6146 10 ай бұрын

@@ender0998he kinda did tho.

@The3Dpolygon Жыл бұрын

heres easier way use elon musk magic that he says lol

@ophadamia2579 3 жыл бұрын

You mean, Mars takes about 668 _sols_ to orbit the sun.

@fallendown8828 2 жыл бұрын

668.6 sols

@novmoon5724 2 жыл бұрын

Sucks, too tough

@borutgoli840 Жыл бұрын

this is due to the low efficiency of todays rocket engines that we need to fly orbits and wait to the launch window and to use gravity assist etc. If we had nuclear fision, matter/antimatter engine we would just point our rocket in a straith line to the planet no matter where it is and we would fire our engines for longer period of time to reach velocities 1000x higher. Todays rockets reach 0.004% of light speed, but for any real travel we need to boost that up to 20% of speed of light.

@jannieschluter9670 Жыл бұрын

It's flat boys.

@macimeza 2 жыл бұрын

There was I looking for where I will be sitting in heaven with Jesus but nothing 🤦🏾, Oh well! I guess I will be going to the next video about Jupiter maybe it is there 🤷🏾