<p>A new route to Mars could make manned missions much cheaper, easier and more frequent, researchers say. Getting spacecraft to Mars is quite a hassle and transportation costs can soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Now new research lays out a smoother, safer way to achieve Martian orbit.<br />Called ballistic capture, the method could help open the Martian frontier for more robotic missions, future manned expeditions and even colonisation efforts, Scientific American reported.<br /><br />"It could be a pretty big step for us and really save us resources and capability, which is always what we're looking for," said James Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.<br /><br />Instead of shooting for the location Mars will be in its orbit where the spacecraft will meet it, as is conventionally done with Hohmann transfers, a spacecraft is casually lobbed into a Mars-like orbit so that it flies ahead of the planet.<br /><br />Although launch and cruise costs remain the same, the big burn to slow down and hit the Martian bull's-eye - as in the Hohmann scenario - is done away with. For ballistic capture, the spacecraft cruises a bit slower than Mars itself as the planet runs its orbital lap around the Sun.<br /><br />Mars eventually creeps up on the spacecraft, gravitationally snagging it into a planetary orbit. "That's the magic of ballistic capture - it's like flying in formation," said Edward Belbruno, a visiting associated researcher at Princeton University and co-author, with Francesco Topputo of the Polytechnic University of Milan.<br /><br />The research appears in the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.</p>
<p>A new route to Mars could make manned missions much cheaper, easier and more frequent, researchers say. Getting spacecraft to Mars is quite a hassle and transportation costs can soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Now new research lays out a smoother, safer way to achieve Martian orbit.<br />Called ballistic capture, the method could help open the Martian frontier for more robotic missions, future manned expeditions and even colonisation efforts, Scientific American reported.<br /><br />"It could be a pretty big step for us and really save us resources and capability, which is always what we're looking for," said James Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.<br /><br />Instead of shooting for the location Mars will be in its orbit where the spacecraft will meet it, as is conventionally done with Hohmann transfers, a spacecraft is casually lobbed into a Mars-like orbit so that it flies ahead of the planet.<br /><br />Although launch and cruise costs remain the same, the big burn to slow down and hit the Martian bull's-eye - as in the Hohmann scenario - is done away with. For ballistic capture, the spacecraft cruises a bit slower than Mars itself as the planet runs its orbital lap around the Sun.<br /><br />Mars eventually creeps up on the spacecraft, gravitationally snagging it into a planetary orbit. "That's the magic of ballistic capture - it's like flying in formation," said Edward Belbruno, a visiting associated researcher at Princeton University and co-author, with Francesco Topputo of the Polytechnic University of Milan.<br /><br />The research appears in the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.</p>