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by wongarsu
850 days ago
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Getting from earth's surface to low earth orbit is about equivalent to accelerating by 9 km/s, in terms of fuel. Some it lost to drag and gravity, but at the orbit of the ISS you have an orbital sites of about 7.6 km/s. If you could teleport a fully fueled Saturn V into orbit, it could speed up by about 18 km/s. More if you reduced the payload. Of course going from 18 to 30 exposes you to the tyranny of the rocket equation: to go faster you need more fuel, which makes your rocket heavier, which means it needs more fuel, which makes your rocket heavier, ... Any small efficiency increase matters a lot here. It might be possible with today's tech if you build the rocket in orbit (which gets rid of aerodynamic constrains), or alternatively with orbital refueling and a couple more decades of progress in more efficient engine types (which you could greatly accelerate by throwing money at it). |
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Solar sails released at perihelion can also achieve very high speeds.
Slowing down in the target system could be done with solar sails or electrodynamic sails (working on the stellar wind).
Ion or plasma engines are another possibility, with nuclear power plants.