#orbital-mechanics

#orbital-mechanics

We are not advocates of executing people in cruel and unusual ways here on Futurism, but we have to admit we are intrigued by this astronomer's proposal of launching bad people into the Sun. Of course, as the associate professor of astronomy at Monash University Michael JI Brown explains: the concept "sounds easy enough," but "may be harder than you think." And the reasons why are fascinating - at least from a perspective of physics, rather than criminal justice.

If you watch sci-fi movies, you'd think that flying a spaceship is just like driving a slightly more complicated car (or a Winnebago in Spaceballs). And George Lucas gave us those galactic battles with pilots who look like they're flying fighter jets on Earth. Well, bad news: Space is really, really different. In particular, moving a vehicle in orbit around Earth is way more complicated than that. The maneuvers you might make with a plane sometimes have the opposite effect in orbit.