Michelin Guide to the Solar System

Sarah Lawday, Jérémy Lebreton, Axel Richard, Florence Gris

Illkirch, april 2008

How to choose the trip's parameters.

By clicking on the parameters button:

you open a window:

You have two possibilities: 1) to make a simple trip between two planets, 2) to make a trip between two planets and use the gavity assist when the second planet is reached

For case 1)

- enter the desired departure and arrival times

- choose the departure and arrival planets from the drop-down menu.

You don't have to fill in the other parameters

Then simply click on OK to make your parameters effective or on cancel.

For case 2)

- enter the desired departure and arrival times

- choose the departure and arrival planets from the drop-down menu.

- enter the parameters of the gravity assist procedure. For the minimum distance from the planet, please choose a distance which is below the radius of the planet's sphere of influence.

The spheres of influence of the planets of the solar system (in A.U.) :

- enter the two range limits for the approach angle and the number of angles between 1 and 10. These will be used to compute a fan of slingshot trajectories. Below we show such a situation with 3 entry points between 0° and 360° with a radius "r". The sphere of influence is shown in blue.

Then click on OK Slingshot to make your parameters effective or on cancel.

The Today button fills the departure and arrival dates by the current date of your computer.