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arteggio
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Within
 
2011-03-08, 15:41

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Observer
So Messenger was sent on a course that took it once past the Earth, once past Venus and then three times past Mercury itself so that it approached its target at the right speed and direction.
It fascinates me to consider how, sometimes, we can throw a marble into the air and get it to land more or less right where we wanted it, predicted it, and made it to go. The universe is so understandable while so mysterious.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Curiousuburb View Post
So does that make it a 4 year or a 15 year trip so far?
6-going-on-7 years, being launched in 2004? It's 2011.

Nonetheless, I suppose it's made a 6.6 Earth-year trip and a 15 Mercury Messenger-year trip, all at the same time. Just like Earth can do one year while Venus does 1.6 and Jupiter about a tenth... You just have to pick which planet you want to be on. That's how I see it from my non-mathematician point of view anyway.
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