Cheers, Simon!

For flights to the surface of Sol, Iโ€™m under the impression than wings of 
feathers adhered with beeswax are inadvisable.

Itโ€™s not a grate circle route and Iโ€™ve read that itโ€™s actually a difficult 
problem, I suppose because itโ€™s easy to get captured into a captive orbit 
unless you cancel out the initial (significant) orbital velocity so you can 
just fall in. Geodesic paths on the oblate spheroid that models Earth challenge 
my limited mathematical skills so Iโ€™ve not seriously considered the problem.

Er, since adding Luna and then Mars maps to GCmap pre-2010 (my logs stumbled a 
bit) I have considered adding the ability to calculate paths or at least 
distances between points on two different bodies. On one body (Earth, Luna, 
Mars, and Pluto are supported, but not Sol), paths between two points work, at 
least according to the best parameters of the appropriate oblate spheroid that 
Iโ€™ve been able to find.

Between bodies is obviously a MUCH more complex problem, but as an Easter egg 
Iโ€™ve considered offering at least distance(s). Path has too many variables but 
for the simplest case of Earth and Luna, you only need to consider Lunaโ€™s 
apogee and perigee plus the radius of earth times the sine (or cosine? Itโ€™s too 
late) of the latitude to bound the distance solution. Well, assuming you ignore 
orbital movement just as winds are ignored in geodesic paths.

Er, the simple answer to your question, โ€œ Have you offered to work out the best 
great circle route there?,โ€ would be no. :-)

 -- Karl

> On Jun 3, 2025, at 12:23 PM, srbrown via Mifnet <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> Karl, Have you offered to work out the best great circle route there? 
> 
> Simon
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: "Karl L. Swartz via Mifnet" <[email protected]>
> Date: 03/06/2025 07:05 (GMT+00:00)
> To: Mifnet <[email protected]>
> Cc: "Karl L. Swartz" <[email protected]>
> Subject: [Mifnet ๐Ÿš€ 72565] Re: Heard in the Hangar #289 Rocket Lab acquisition 
> of Geost LLC; takeaways from SpaceX, PL, LUV, UAL, JBLU, RYAAY, AAL, SNCY, 
> Azul, FLYY, FTAI, JOBY ACHR
> 
> Iโ€™d be quite happy if Musk and his (former?) pal Tangerine TACO decided to 
> attempt to be the first โ€œmenโ€ to land on the surface of Sol. Seems like a 
> well-chosen expenditure.
> 
>  -- Karl
> 
>> On Jun 2, 2025, at 9:02 PM, David Wardell via Mifnet 
>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> 
>> I'll just observe that:
>> Musk's ideas as to muliplanetary whatever are irrational, based upon current 
>> and foreseeable technology. 
>> NASA spending $1 billion on a Mars program at the expense of other projects 
>> is an ill-informed bad idea. 
>> Old Man Wardell
>> Failed Mad Scientist 
>> 
>> 
>> David Wardell
>> +1.757.561.0582 <tel:+1.757.561.0582>
>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 
> 
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