|
|
|
|
|
by Nimelrian
2292 days ago
|
|
Getting stuff to mercury is hard though. IIRC it takes around 16,000 m/s of dV to get from LEO to the surface of mercury. Titan would take even more (19,000) but a huge chunk of it can be reduced by making use of aerobraking. |
|
However, there is a very efficient trajectory that could be used by solar sailing ships for a fast, cheap route to Mercury once every 16 months. You leave Earth for Venus, where you do a gravity assist to drop your perihelion significantly below the orbit of Mercury, just to get low enough that a reasonable solar sail can get reasonable thrust even with significant cargo. Then you can use your infinite delta-v to match your aphelion with Mercury, and can do an efficient capture trajectory.