What the papers say

According to an article in today's Daily Telegraph (Europe sets sights
on its first Moon trip- David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent)

"The engine will accelerate Smart-1 until it is within 250,000 to
220,000
miles of the Moon."

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$W2JCLKLOTJ1
0PQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2003/08/18/wmoon18.xml&sSheet=/portal/200
3/08/18/ixportal.html

But the Earth is always 250,000 to 220,000 miles from the Moon!
--
"Roads in space for rockets to travel....four-dimensional roads, curving with
relativity"
Mail to jsilverlight AT merseia.fsnet.co.uk is welcome.
Or visit Jonathan's Space Site http://www.merseia.fsnet.co.uk

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:18:59 +0100, in uk.sci.astronomy , Jonathan
Silverlight wrote:

According to an article in today's Daily Telegraph (Europe sets sights
on its first Moon trip- David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent)

"The engine will accelerate Smart-1 until it is within 250,000 to
220,000
miles of the Moon."

But the Earth is always 250,000 to 220,000 miles from the Moon!

Then it will be a very economical burn, won't it? g

Mind you, the earth moon separation may be around 0.25Mm. but the
length of the flight path will be considerably more, as it will be
approximately an ellipse with the earth at one epicentre and the moon
at another. Depending on the oblateness of the ellipse, the path could
be double the radius. ( excuse the wobbly ellipse bits nomenclature,
I'm 20 years away from my a-level geometry...)

OTOH its probably a stupid misprint...
--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:18:59 +0100, in uk.sci.astronomy , Jonathan
Silverlight wrote:

According to an article in today's Daily Telegraph (Europe sets sights
on its first Moon trip- David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent)

"The engine will accelerate Smart-1 until it is within 250,000 to
220,000
miles of the Moon."

But the Earth is always 250,000 to 220,000 miles from the Moon!

Then it will be a very economical burn, won't it? g

Mind you, the earth moon separation may be around 0.25Mm. but the
length of the flight path will be considerably more, as it will be
approximately an ellipse with the earth at one epicentre and the moon
at another. Depending on the oblateness of the ellipse, the path could
be double the radius. ( excuse the wobbly ellipse bits nomenclature,
I'm 20 years away from my a-level geometry...)

OTOH its probably a stupid misprint...
--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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