why it is much more difficult to send a satellite to the sun than it is to send it outside the solar system.

Question

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

Answer 1

Its easy to send something into orbit around the sun. Its hard to send something INTO the sun. This is because anything that is launched from the earth is already orbiting the sun. To send something into the sun it has to be accelerated in the opposite direction we’re orbiting which is about 67000 miles per hour. That takes a lot of energy and fuel.