Dec. 30 – A new safe and economical orbit to reach Mars was revealed in recent days on Scientific American – one of the oldest and most prestigious science journals published by the Nature Publishing Group. The authors of the work are Francesco Topputo of the Milan Polytechnic and Edward Belbruno of Princeton University. The two researchers have shown that it is possible to significantly reduce costs of the Earth-Mars transfer using capture ballistics. The technique exploits the simultaneous gravitational pull of two or more celestial bodies on the satellite, thus violating the basic assumptions of the patched-conics model, currently in use. In ballistic capture, the satellite approaches Mars in a smoother and cheaper way. (red)
