"Launch today" is a very undesirable constraint for this goal. All of the probes... | Hacker News

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		AStonesThrow on Oct 30, 2024 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: NASA reconnected with Voyager 1 after a brief paus... "Launch today" is a very undesirable constraint for this goal. All of the probes that have escaped made extensive use of gravitational slingshot effects, which are only available during favorable launch windows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_lea... Long story short: they plan these out for decades at a time, and take your best shot when the planets align, literally.

ceejayoz on Oct 30, 2024 | [–]

We needed the slingshotting because until recently on-orbit construction was mostly a pipe-dream.

If you can build larger ships in orbit, relatively cheaply, you can go a lot more direct, a lot faster.

datameta on Oct 30, 2024 | | [–]

Even on-orbit refueling is a huge boon for orbital assist flexibility.

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