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Re:Starship Update by JohnJamesRambo on Saturday September 28, 2019 @11:29PM (#21104863)
I recently realized that if we got in Jupiter's gravity well we could probably never escape it again. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. The thought made me feel really uneasy.
Re:Starship Update by bagels on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:06AM (#21105000)
Launching from the (nonexistent) surface of Jupiter would be the comparison. From a low orbit of Jupiter you need a lot of delta v to escape, but you don't need extremely high thrust as would be needed to get in to orbit in the first place from the surface of a body. You could use a very efficient thruster over a long period of time which is a lot easier to design for.
Re:Starship Update by tdy721 on Sunday September 29, 2019 @02:24AM (#21105467)
So along this same line the PSP Parker Solar Probe is exploring our gravity well in the other direction, and in some ways will be more gone forever than voyagers.

I think the Jovian Moon Io is very low, look up an eclipse photo from Juno; it would be key to exploring low Jovian orbit, just like Venus kicks PSP and Jupiter kicked Voyagers.

Re:Starship Update by hossbeast on Saturday September 28, 2019 @11:40PM (#21104897)
If that were true, it would be impossible to leave the solar system, since everything is currently in the Sun's gravity well, and the Sun is larger than Jupiter. But we have sent probes outside the solar system (did they fully leave the Sun's gravity well yet though? Not sure)
Re:Starship Update by davidivadavid on Saturday September 28, 2019 @11:57PM (#21104969)
But we didn't send the probes from the Sun.
Re:Starship Update by furyofantares on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:53AM (#21105163)
Plus I don't think it got its velocity from Earth, but by using gravity assists to steal momentum from other planets (which, if you don't know how that works, do yourself a favor and read the wikipedia page, it's pretty great).
Re:Starship Update by mrfusion on Sunday September 29, 2019 @07:12AM (#21106394)
Remember that we’re already orbiting the sun though. A lot of the hard work is already done.
Re:Starship Update by sudhirj on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:52AM (#21105154)
The premise is about current chemical propellants and structural components. If you build a rocket out of nanotubes with nuclear propulsion you could go wherever you want from anywhere else. Except black holes.
Re:Starship Update by lostmsu on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:29AM (#21105087)
You have to have high thrust to get out of the dragging atmosphere.
Re:Starship Update by gmoot on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:06AM (#21105001)
Sure, we could orbit Jupiter and get back out. But if we ever descended to the "surface" we couldn't climb back out.

Voyager 1/2 and New Horizons are at escape velocity and leaving the solar system.