How long would it take to drive to the sun?

But remember that this is an average number. The Earth actually follows an elliptical path around the Sun. At the closest point of its orbit, called perihelion, the Earth is only 91.40 million miles. And then when it’s out at the most distant point of its orbit, called aphelion, the Earth reaches 94.51 million miles.

 

Well the nice thing is in space there's no speed limit (except for the speed of light perhaps) so I'd want to drive a bit faster than 65mph

The Apollo spacecraft hit 24,000+ mph, so it would only take 160 days at that velocity.

 

Neither one of y'all are pilots huh...

Ummmmm... the Sun is also moving through the Milky Way at over 50,000 mph... if you drive to where it is now you will miss it when you think you should get there...

Ya gots ta put a little lead in your shot, like hunting a dove, if you shoot where you see it you will miss it... you have to shoot in front of where it is going to hit it at all.

 

A little more down to earth:

384400 km's to the moon
At 100 km, 24 hrs per day
Takes you: 160 days, and a bit.

 

To make sure you don't burn up - go at night.

 

Well so are you when you leave Earth and after you are in space. Your not an astronaut.

 

163 years? That's a lot of bathroom breaks...maybe a solar sail would speed the journey?

 

Why drive to the sun, you can melt in Arizona and have gas left over!

 

Ok, this is a job for NASA-miler:

1. Pulse to the moon
2. Glide to the moon
   
3. Gravity pulse to increase speed
4. Glide to Earth
5. Gravity pulse to increase speed (a second moon pulse is possible)
   
6. Glide to Venus
7. Gravity pulse to increase speed
8. Glide to Mars
9. Gravity pulse to increase speed
10. Glide to Sun

Bob Wilson

 

With no air drag after the first few dozen miles, and a downhill coast once out of the earth's gravity well, I also don't see any reason to ride the brakes to keep the speed down to 65.

1. It seems that very few folks realize that a direct flight to the Sun, without these gravity assists, is about the most costly (in fuel) mission we can do inside the solar system. It actually requires far far more fuel than a direct flight to Pluto, the Kuiper Belt, or even a complete escape from the Sun. The P&G path you list doesn't save just a moderate fraction like we'd get on the road, it can save an enormous fraction.

 

Who let the realists in..., this thread was doing just fine.

 

Well I did make one mistake as I should have suggested pulsing to Mercury. But if we pulse to Mars, we have the option of including more pulses:

• Moon pulse
• Earth pulse
• Venus pulse
• Mercury pulse

I just didn't have my handy-dandy, NASA orbital calculator handy. In truth, each alternative needs to be examined carefully as planetary and moon alignment are date specific. As the number of pulse events increases, the available start windows change, generally moving further in the future. A moon-earth pulse path has the more immediate start window but the least velocity increase. Every additional pulse added increases the velocity at the risk of a narrower start window.

Bob Wilson

 

No Jupiter pulses in there? I thought that had to be used for the biggest delta-Vs, such as the Ulysses probe.

 

Even better than pulse and glide -
Just "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"*



* Pink Floyd

 

Unlike some people on this thread, I'm not a rocket scientist. But.....

Wouldn't it make sense to just fire your rockets backwards along Earth's orbit? Once you've lost the centripetal force, you could just fall into the sun's gravity well.

The Earth is orbiting the sun at - what? - 67,000mph or something. If Apollo could get up to 24,000mph, then if you did that going backwards along Earth's orbit, you'd drop your orbiting speed to 43,000mph, which wouldn't be enough to keep you in orbit. So just the one burst of power to head away from the Earth at 24,000mph and you should be able to coast the rest of the way.

Or am I wrong?

 

Also, I have enough trouble getting traction when pulling away from an uphill junction on wet leaves. I'd imagine a vacuum and microgravity will send the traction control completely nuts, and I'll never actually get up to 65mph.

 

Each gravity-assist pulse in theory can add twice the planetary velocity to the space-Prius. But in reality the gains are less but impressive:

Bob Wilson

ps. I do not endorse 'games' but calling this a simulation exercise gives a clue: Kerbal Space Program