89.Going to Mars

Reader86

(a) Mars at its nearest is 56 million kilometers away, so the light travel time is:

time of travel =5.6·107km3·105kms= 187 s2

In terms of minutes, this becomes187
s·1 min60
s= 3.11 min

It takes a little over 3 minutes each way to communicate with a spacecraft on Mars at closest approach.

(b) At the most distant, Mars is 400 million kilometers from Earth, so we can compute the travel time for light:

time of travel =4·108km3.00·105kms= 1,330 s

We would again prefer this in minutes, so we convert:1,330
s·1 min60
s= 22,2 min


If SpaceX flies at light speed, only 3.11 ~ 22.2 min need from Earth to Mars.

Current spaceship speed is only 1/18,000 of light speed, therefore, it takes 40 ~ 285 days to Mars.

Reader86

Hi Captain Kirk. I guess you wouldn’t go to Wars. Starship’s speed is only 1/18000 of light speed. It will take perhaps 48+ days  to arrive there if Elon lunches it on Feb, 20, 2027.

I watched a lot of Capital Jean-Luc Picard, but only a few episodes of Cap. Kirk.