Quote:
Originally Posted by jledou
I am always amazed that these are still working and they were able to pull off the actual flight and mechanical computation given that we all carry more computing power in our pockets on a daily basis now.
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All of the calculations alone to get the probes where they want them to go are mind boggling. They don't just send it up and towards the targeted planet.
https://www.universetoday.com/113488...ingshots-work/
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft made 2 Earth flybys, 2 Venus flybys and 3 Mercury flybys before it was going slowly enough to make an orbital insertion around Mercury. Ulysses, the solar probe launched in 1990, used gravity assists to totally change its trajectory into a polar orbit above and below the Sun. And Cassini used flybys of Venus, Earth and Jupiter to reach Saturn with an efficient flight path.