Is it possible to jump into orbit?
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
A paper has considered whether it is possible to jump into orbit on a body of small mass, such as Mars’s moon Deimos. The authors conclude that it is impossible to jump from the surface of Mars’s moon into a trajectory that would lead to a stable orbit though comment that it may be possible to enter orbit by jumping vertically from a high point on the surface or by building a platform which is then collapsed. Deimos’s escape velocity is only 5.8 m/s and it is calculated that a stone dropped from waist height would take around 30 s to reach the ground.
References
T. Bradley, M. Walker, G. McQuade, & L. Garland, Jumping Into Orbit. Physics Special Topics, vol. 13, no. 1, 2014, pp. 1-2.
T. Koupelis, In Quest of the Solar System, Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2011, p. 239
K. Crosswell, Magnificent Mars, New York, NY, Free Press, 2003, p. 178
