A friend told me that with the current engineering we cannot send a satellite to the sun (just reaching it, not survival) because we would have to nullify the velocity of earth with respect to the sun. I’m not sure I understand and not sure if that is true.
In: Physics
It is true that is it more difficult to send a satellite into the sun that into the solar system. But not impossible, we are [close](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Solar_Probe)
Orbits are basically moving sideways at the same rate you are falling. Imagine shooting a cannon really fast on Earth. Since the Eartg is roughly a sphere, the ground curves away from the cannonball. This is a small amount for small distances. But if the cannonball was travelling really, really fast, then when it falls 1 meter, the cannonball will have traveled far enough that the Earth will have curved 1 meter way from the cannonball.
The Earth rotates around the sun at a mostly constant speed of VE. In order to hit the sun, you would have to reduce the speed to nearly 0 so that your orbit radius is so small it is inside the sun.
To leave the solar system, your orbit needs to be really big. We will call this speed VS. When we want to shoot things out of the solar system, we just need to make up the difference between VS and VE. So VS – VE = dV (d for delta, or difference)
It just so happens that due to the size of the Earth, and the size of the Earth orbit, VE > dV. So it takes more effort to hit the sun than to exit the solar system.
Fun Fact: the easiest way to hit the sun is to fly out near Pluto where your orbital speed is really low. Then fire your engines to get to speed 0, and literally fall into the sun.
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