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Article: <5fd6a7$775@dfw-ixnews5.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: LONG ELLIPSE ORBITS
Date: 3 Mar 1997 00:34:15 GMT
In article <702@starlight.win-uk.net> Terence
Christopher Platt writes:
> Does NASA know that the Voyager and Pioneer probes are
> travelling in straight lines out of the Solar System ..
> tplatt@starlight.win-uk.net (Terence Christopher Platt)
As a matter of fact, they do. Unless a probe is close enough to a large object to be affected by its gravity, curving toward it in a combination of the gravity pull and its forward motion, they move in a straight line. The curves you see drawn on diagrams for publication are smoothed. That's why they have those little jets, so they can encourage the probes to go where they're supposed to go on occasion, though most certainly they are trying to take advantage of what is called "gravitational assist" whenever possible.
This is depicted in Astronomy magazine, November 1986, on pages 8-9, an article written by Charles E. Kolhase, then manager of the Voyager Missions Planning Office at JPL. His diagrams clearly show that these probes fly in STRAIGHT LINES between the encounters they are programmed to make.