I saw a meme that stated that, if you’re mad at someone, it take less Delta-V to launch them out of the solar system than in does to fire them into the Sun.
Why is that? Wouldn’t the attraction of the Sun’s mass be greater and provide assistance?
In: Physics
You’re already booking it just being here on Earth
Earth is orbiting the Sun at 30 km/s, to leave the solar system from Earths orbit you need to get up to 46 km/s, and to crash into the sun you need to get down to 0 (or near). Since you’re starting from 30 that means escape requires a delta-V of 16 km/s, but hitting the sun requires 30 km/s in the other direction
The attraction of the Sun’s mass is what has caused the Earth to already be doing 30 km/s in orbit around it, and everything starting from Earth starts with that same velocity. You can do some gravity “assists” around Mars and Venus to shed some speed so you don’t need fuel for all 30 km/s of Delta V but it’ll still take a long time to get in close to the sun. The easiest way to get to the Sun is actually to add 16 km/s to reach escape velocity, scoot out to the edge of the solar system, burn a tiny bit more fuel to drop speed to zero, then wait 100 years as the probe slowly falls back inwards towards the sun (its fuel efficient but not time efficient)
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