A Gentle
Push
All the Way to the Stars
The
force of the ion propulsion system that the Deep Space 1
uses is so small, that the push it gives the spacecraft is
like the weight of a single piece of notebook paper resting
in your hand.
Only
four days after it was launched, Deep Space 1 was about
1,000,000 kilometers (about 600,000 miles) from Earth, and
it continued moving away. (That is more than twice as far as
the moon.) How
long would it take you to go 1,000,000
kilometers?
The
Deep Space 1 spacecraft gets fantastically high "gas
mileage," but it accelerates very very gently. To go from 0
to 100 kilometers per hour (about the same as 60 miles per
hour) would take Deep Space 1 two and one-half
days!
To walk
that far, you would have to walk for 8 hours every day of
the week, every week of the year, for your whole
life!
To
drive that far at the top speed allowed on highways in the
United States, you would have to drive 24 hours a day
(without stopping for gas, food, going to the bathroom, or
stretching your legs), every day for a year-- and then you
would still have to drive for another month!
To
fly that far in a jet, you would have to fly for 6 weeks
without stopping!
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