Chasing a comet
Rosetta’s journey from launch in March 2004 to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August 2014, including 3 flybys of Earth and 1 of Mars. By January 2014 Rosetta is about 9 million kilometres from comet 67P/CG. By early May, Rosetta will be 2 million kilometres from the comet and at the end of May the spacecraft will execute a major rendezvous manoeuvre to line it up for orbit insertion at the start of August.
The comet and planets are not to scale.
Credits: ESA — C. Carreau
I wonder how by how many kilometers it would miss if you would make a 0,01 degree error during the gravity assist maneuvers.
The math behind this must've been ridiculous.
snooker is far more easier
We just finished learning about polar coordinates in school(area, arc length, etc). I can really see the application here!
And that's whu kids, we should learn mathematics!