Illustration: Michael Bain
Several months ago, before I became a GeekDad contributor, I was at a conference presenting my team’s work on mitigating asteroid threats. Part of my presentation mentioned a rather obscure maneuver for a spacecraft to escape the orbit of a central body. Michael Reilly was covering the conference and honored our team’s work by writing it up for Wired. The hard work of GeekDad contributors frequently makes it to Wired. After discussing it with the GeekDad editors it seems only fair to link this work back to GeekDad. Here it is.
I should note that this maneuver is applicable not only to trips to Mars but in any situation where we want to escape a gravity well. My co-author, Georgia Richardson at UAHuntsville and I are continuing to refine the concept.
