(September 17, 2015 at 5:51 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote:(September 16, 2015 at 4:14 am)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: Would be much easier to send a probe to one of Jupiter's moons (e.g. Europa) for that purpose, by a big margin. Seems like they're close to one another, because of how far away they are from us and yet are "adjacent", but in fact, they are at 5.20 and 9.58 AU, making Jupiter closer to us (at 4.20 AU) than Saturn is to Jupiter (at 4.38 AU).
(Distances assume the planets are all "in a straight line", of course.)
Well yeah, at least where "easier" is substantially a proxy for "faster", especially considering that it's likely a mission to Saturn is going to involve a gravity assist from Jupiter.
Then again, why do one, when you can do both for (at least) twice the price?
It's not quite as simple as "swinging past" Jupiter to get into a Saturn orbit; they have to both be in such a position (and in a position relative to Earth) that we can utilize the technique. It limits available launch windows to wait, whereas Jupiter is always just a matter of what time of year, so the Earth is in the right position relative to Jupiter.
Also, every kilogram of that satellite that has to go X kph to get there means several times the extra pounds of fuel in a bigger rocket. It's the reason the New Horizons probe is so tiny and thus of limited capability; to get there quickly enough to do useful science within the career-spans of the scientists who designed it, they had to put the smallest probe on the biggest rocket they could find, and that's still with grav-assist.
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