“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
Speaking in the customary tones of an evangelical minister trained in the dark arts of using a righteous serpent tongue, Mr. Hutchinson indicates that he carries a higher moral authority to sit in judgement of what the professional Republican Party truly needs.
Now, it is our turn. We can attack them back by calling out their disease, that of ‘weaponized MBP’ as regards their society destabilizing tactic of ‘trans’, and ‘trans kids’ which is the weaponized appeal to ‘compassion’. Look to the words they use! All tragic, all encompassing distortions such as ‘genocide’.
French MP who got the Covid vax developed heart problems and required surgery to keep him alive.
He says: "What I did NOT KNOW was that Mr Macron was not vaccinated. I did not know that most of the members of the government were not." pic.twitter.com/Sp9wBWhTt3
"When the Freemasons realized in the 18th century that ‘whoever controls schools controls everything’, they set about influencing as many children as possible between the ages of 6 and 18, primarily through the school system."https://t.co/8qJkDur2Tt
Matt Taibbi discusses disturbing new findings in the Twitter files.
Aspen Institute discussions in 2021 revealed their Orwellian plan to rollout legislation in the EU/US designed to ensure complete control and immediate surveillance over media content monitored by AI.… pic.twitter.com/fmDzyPidfz
'No Vaccine Can Do That': Just Rinsing Your Nose Can Reduce Hospitalization by a Factor of Eight
"Now the nasal rinse is virtually free," told VSRF Founder Steve Kirsch @stkirsch. "You just have to buy the distilled and salt, and you mix it together, and you rinse your nose… pic.twitter.com/60BBmjMNy5
"They are misgendering and dead naming the murderer. They are referring to the murderer by their given name and not their chosen name. … If someone says they're a man they're a man."
What are the political implications of the first (((woman))) as the head of marketing for bud light ruining the brand overnight by doing a tranny campaign? pic.twitter.com/1HTIo0i4rC
I’d throw in a few Rockefellers and Rothschilds also.
Of course, this does not mean committing felonies, but standing up to the forces that want to tear this nation – and humanity apart. The very people XVII told us will be destroyed by the time this movie comes to an end are currently roaming the halls of power…supposedly. It’s a sickening sight.
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.
Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.
1Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. 2He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. 3And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 4But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.” 5And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength — 6he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Many christians have it in their head that this is a battle of God Vs Satan.
As I’ve said before, they are NOT equals.
Satan can only do what God allows him to do. God is truly Sovereign over all things.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast down to Hell Satan and all his evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
>>148156518 Amen brother. Q
As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome. Via con Dios.
Satire
Tired Of Being President, Biden Hangs 'Trump Won' Sign Out Of White House Window https://t.co/HjzryVo3PI
U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to board Marine One with first lady Melania Trump en route to his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida following the release of the Mueller report at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria – RC1F20A769B0
AND our beautiful REALFLOTUS.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Please forgive us, Wheatie, we did not know That you had left us with armor in tow We had no idea with what you dealt We did not know the pain you felt And now we can only imagine With you what really did happen Cause rarely did you complain And/or share your personal pain Of one thing we are most certain You are flying high behind the curtain Watching over us above the crowds Our Warrior Angel above the clouds Thank You, Wheatie, for caring for us While you were here among the fuss We miss you dear you have no idea Since time began in the pangaea With you there was no time In your wisdom you would chime To clarify and magnify The what where how and why We did not question when you left We were not slightly bereft But over time we wondered why You did not at least stop by Now we know where you have gone With the break of this new dawn We could be angry but are not Tho with an arrow we’ve been shot Rest peacefully Warrior Angel dear Send us a sign that you are near A butterfly a flower a kiss of rain From your love do not refrain God sends Angels to watch over us And now we have an Angel Plus A Warrior Angel of Magnificence From today and forward hence
Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.
MINOR CHANGE NUMBER 1
Never talk about committing violence in a reply to Wolf or in response to anything Wolf has said, or you may get put into moderation so that your comments can be screened. This is ONLY because DHS is now playing door-knock Gestapo with people who have spoken at school board meetings, made public comments, etc. DHS regime jackboots are knocking on doors of school board mama bears and stupidly insinuating potential violence from things people say or don’t say on social media. A guy in Ohio pointed his FINGER at the school board, and they went after him, armed with pictures of the pointing, and screen captures of online comments. Yeah.
SO – give the Nazis ZERO ammo. Keep any mention of violence, even joking, away from Wolf, so that he doesn’t have to “explain” humor to humorless jackboots who pretend not to know things.
As for discussion of “violent humor” among yourselves (e.g., “#TeamHeadsOnPikes”), just use whatever discretion you think is appropriate for yourselves. I will only put you in moderation if your comments create problems for ME or THIS SITE, but not if they only impact you.
YOU are responsible for your own comments, if they come knocking. YOUR choice. Just remember this…..
OTHER THAN THAT…….
The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.
Bottom line – respect other people’s FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
Our only additional requirement is that you do so NICELY. Or at least try to make some effort in that direction.
SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]
We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.
Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.
In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”
That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.
We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).
We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.
If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.
We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.
In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”
A Moment of Prayer
Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.
Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.
You may also pray for our nation, our world, and even our enemies.
Musical Interlude
In honor of dear Wheatie, we now present some music to soothe, inspire, invigorate, or relax.
Here are three “placeholder” videos, selected from old Wheatie posts.
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned John Lausch, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, to review the classified papers and determine how they ended up at the Penn Biden Center.https://t.co/ADRJf3Cxch
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Blessed . . . in Perilous Times
HERE WE ARE: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure . . . 2 Timothy 3:1-4
. . . and having the man, President Trump, who we hope God has put in a place of leadership to bring honesty, truth, patriotism and love of God back to our country, facing the prospect of being maliciously charged with nonexistent crimes by a corrupt and evil liberal establishment, in order to neutralize his future leadership.
WHAT ARE WE TO DO? Well, simply put, we need to feel blessed.
WHAT? How can this be? With all that’s going wrong in our country and in the world at this time, we’re supposed to feel happy? What type of naïve fools do you think we are, anyway?
Please read on.
Quite possibly, the most frequently used word in the Christian’s vocabulary is blessed. “Have a blessed day,” “blessed to be a blessing,” and “God bless you” are just a few of the ways we put it to use. It’s even common among unbelievers to describe themselves as “blessed.” Some people think of blessed as a spiritual term for “good fortune,” like when we receive something good, the desired outcome, or an exceptional comfort. But what does it really mean to be blessed?
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42–45, 48), it was the Lord God who had blessed and favored her.
While material blessings are certainly included in God’s favor, the Bible ascribes a much fuller meaning to the word blessed.
Perhaps the most well-known use of the word blessed in the Bible is found in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12; Luke 6:20–23). Jesus used the term blessed in the framework of the Beatitudes to describe the inner quality of a faithful servant of God. This blessedness is a spiritual state of well-being and prosperity—a deep, joy-filled contentment that cannot be shaken by poverty, grief, famine, persecution, war, or any other trial or tragedy we face in life. In human terms, the situations depicted in the Beatitudes are far from blessings, but because God is present with us through these difficult times, we are actually blessed by Him in them.
The true servant of God is blessed, regardless of circumstances, because God has favored him or her with a fully satisfied soul (Psalm 63:1–5; John 4:14). The material things we crave can never bring genuine happiness or contentment. True fulfillment can only be found in a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1–2).
From the time God first created humans, He blessed them (Genesis 1:22; 5:2; 12:3) and has continued to do so throughout history (Genesis 26:3; Deuteronomy 7:13; Job 42:12; Judges 13:24). Because of Christ’s work of redemption on the cross, we can now receive the full blessings of God through faith in Him: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). We are blessed because our sins are forgiven and can no longer be counted against us (Psalm 32:1–2).
The Bible measures blessedness differently from how people of the world measure it: “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). To those who rest in God, He grants an inner state of joy that is unaffected by external trials. What is this promised “crown of life?” It is the never-ending, victorious life in the world to come, where all trials will be ended. The marvelous blessings we experience now are minor compared to the benefits God has stored up for us in His eternal kingdom (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The one who is blessed trusts in God’s love, no matter what: “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? . . . No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35–39, NLT).
Blessed speaks of our inner state of well-being, the prosperity of our souls in Christ. Blessedness comes from unhindered fellowship with God the Father through our Lord Jesus. To be blessed is to experience the full impact of God’s presence in our lives now and for all eternity.
Well you may have noted less output here from me, and less interaction. I’ve been doing some thinking.
And I’ve come to the conclusion that the cultural Left might just have a point.
As a white heterosexual male, I truly can have no idea what it’s like to be a person of color, I haven’t walked a mile in their shoes and seen first hand they way they are treated. No, not every white, but enough, treat them with obvious contempt and many just have a bias they are blind to. This does lead to a systemic sort of racism, and similar mechanisms exist with sex and sexual preference.
As such we simply can’t understand the level of offense Trump has committed by using Stormy Daniels then discarding her and then offering a relative pittance to her to shut up, thus devaluing her just because she is a woman and (of course) exercising his white, cis, hetero male privilege. Not only that he had the infernal gall to pay this small amount of money out of monies he shouldn’t have used for that purpose. He richly deserves whatever punishment the New York courts mete out.
Now you may want to argue with me about this, but first I’d like you to spend some time in introspection, to be sure you can truly say you don’t have an unconscious behavior pattern that could be causing issues.
But before you do that, scroll to the top of the page and read the damned date.
F*ck Donald Trump
Note: for purposes of just this one section, I’ve redefined the word “f*ck” to mean “heap tons of blessings on as a just and inadequate reward for all that he has done.”
But I had to write a headline that wouldn’t just give away the April Fool’s joke.
Oooookay, with the joke now over, (and the English language now reset to its normal values) we can proceed.
Joining The Herd Of Lemmings
I’ve had cause to consider a few things. Maybe we’re going about it the wrong way, and we need to ditch Trump
Yeah, NO
Trump all the way! Why? Because being hated by the people who hate him is a sign of impeccable character, that’s why.
The haters can go fuck themselves with rusty twelve gauge bore brushes. I’d prefer ten gauge but that’s kind of scarce, so…I’m willing to compromise.
The RINO’s Dilemma
The RINOs who who have burrowed in and taken over most GOP organizations, from the state down to local organizations, have quite a dilemma on their hands, and most of them have their heads too far up their asses to realize it.
OK, I’m not talking about the liberal in a Republican area, who knows they’re in the wrong party, but is there because it’s the only game in their town; they hope to capture a nomination someday, at which point they’re guaranteed to be elected…otherwise, they never will be. These people are a hazard in any heavily conservative area.
No, I’m talking about the guys who are a little bit conservative and want to do some good by going into politics, and they’re in a closely matched area, closely enough that they can join the party they are most aligned with and still have a chance. They think the Democrats…particularly the ones who end up running for office…are nuts.
They don’t think much better of the Deplorable types, either. A bunch of bumpkins whose hearts are in the right place, mostly…OK a bit extreme. But they think Deplorables can’t understand that first you have to get elected, then work within the system to change things…a slow process. They genuinely want many of the things Deplorables want…just not as much. The government is spending too much. Or they need to spend money on highways instead of welfare for illegal immigrants. But they want to work within the system to get these things done.
Or maybe they think things are pretty close to ideal right now, and they want to nail it in place.
The problem is, that means they don’t stand for anything in particular. And it shows. They’re about as unappetizing to the electorate as a puddle of dog vomit. The folks in the middle, who they think they are appealing to because they themselves are not extreme, would honestly prefer a clear-spoken radical to someone who qualifies everything they say to the point where they sound like they don’t believe anything at all.
The problem these “Mild RINOs” have, is they just can’t see that. And the reason they just can’t see that, is their entire sense of self-worth is tied up in not seeing that. In their minds, they’ve worked tirelessly for their party, to keep those crazy Democrats out…only to have to constantly fight with a small number of crazy Republicans–who are only liabilities if they end up as candidates. They’ve fought the good fight, and if they can just find the right candidate, someone with some charisma, they might stop the crazies…without being too beholden to the OTHER crazies. In the meantime it’s not working. What’s a responsible guy in politics to do?
They simply cannot understand that the Republicans can’t succeed as the party of nothing in particular. Not really in the past, and certainly not today when people are starting to realize that no matter what they do in the voting booth, the country is still about to fly off a precipice. If they did see it, they’d suddenly have two choices: Go away and let the GOP succeed, or stay and fight. But “go away” isn’t really an option, because what’s the point of having a party now owned by the crazies, win?
Well, they have a dilemma…and WE, therefore have a problem. And we would have that problem even IF they realized that they had a problem…that they were the problem.
No one ever thinks they are the bad guy. Even Epstein probably thought he was the good guy. Right up to the moment where he didn’t kill himself.
So if you ever wonder why these unappetizing dufuses cling on even when their fingernails are being left behind…that’s why. They don’t understand no one wants them, and can’t imagine that no one should want them. And oftentimes their greatest pride is in all the hard work they’ve done for the party. They’re not going to give that up; it’d be psychological suicide.
If you’ve worked with these people, there’s a good chance you like them and consider some of them your friends. But even if so…we’re going to have to give them a good, hard shove. Because America is more important than those milquetoasts’ egos.
Justice Must Be Done
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
Apparently some (still) solvent bank decided to help bail out SillyCon Valley Bank, so the dollar strengthened and gold dropped a bit. But gold is still firmly in the upper $1900s as of the middle of the week. Silver meanwhile moved up quite a bit this week. I guess “they” were so busy suppressing gold they forgot about silver.
Fuck Joe B*d*n
Due to complaints about foul language, I’ve censored the most objectionable word in the title of this section.
B*d*n, you don’t even get ONE scoop of ice cream today.
(Please post this somewhere permanent, as it will continue to be true; the SOB will never deserve a scoop.)
Slingshots
Patched Conics
A few weeks ago I explained how most three (or more) body problems require a lot of iterative computation to solve and that such solutions must necessarily be approximate, even if initial conditions are known perfectly. (Which they never are.)
This isn’t that big a problem today; I know that an old Intel 80386 (even without a 80387 coprocessor), a reasonably up-to-date computer in the early 1990s, could do work like this. (The coprocessor just made it 20-30 times faster.) But back in the 50s, 60s and early 70s computer time was expensive. And the machines were a lot slower too, so they couldn’t just run the numbers as quickly as my bright shiny new 80386 did just a few years later. Thus you couldn’t just plug things in on a whim to see what would happen. Not if you were NASA and had other things for those computers to be doing.
So if you’re brainstorming missions, how do you get a sort of rough idea what can be done?
One method is called “patched conics.”
Let’s say you’re planning to land on the Moon. There are multiple steps involved: 1) Get off the earth. 2) Get into an orbit that will take you out as far as the moon’s orbit (you’ll have to time it so when you get to the moon’s orbit, the moon is actually there at that spot in its orbit instead of the other side of the earth). 3) Settle down into orbit around the moon. 4) You then send down a landing craft, and let it come back up, but in the meantime your main spacecraft stays in lunar orbit. 5) You break out of lunar orbit into one that returns to Earth. 6) Land on Earth.
We have Earth, Moon, and spacecraft. (Let’s give it a snappy name like, say, “Apollo.”)
Three body problem.
But…remember we’re just doing an approximation here, to check feasibility; once they decide they like the idea enough to really spend time on it, they will shove it through their expensive, stone-knives-and-bearskins computer. So we can treat it as three separate problems that can be solved readily.
First, the trajectory from Earth to Moon. That’s either an escape orbit, or a highly elliptical one. You just need to get to a certain point in space…the point where the moon’s gravity is stronger than Earth’s. And it’s straightforward to compute the spacecraft’s velocity at that point (pretending for a moment that there’s no moon there). Note that that is both a speed and a direction of motion, in Earth’s reference frame.
Now, leaving that velocity fixed, put the moon there. But also note that the moon is orbiting the earth too, and it has a velocity in Earth’s reference frame as well.
But now you change reference frames. You subtract the moon’s velocity vector from the spacecraft’s velocity vector, and get a new velocity vector, the velocity of the spacecraft in the Moon’s reference frame.
Now you ignore the earth, and pretend it’s a spacecraft-Moon two body problem. You’ll probably find that your spacecraft is in a hyperbolic (escape) orbit with respect to the Moon, so you’ll need to fire your thrusters to slow yourself down and drop into a nice, tidy lunar orbit. Note how much you have to change your velocity; that’s an absolutely key bit of information since that ultimately determines the rocket fuel you must bring with you (and if it’s too much, you’re not going to be able to do this mission). This process of slowing down and getting into a “regular” elliptical orbit is the process NASA used to call things like “Lunar Orbital Injection” but it has nothing to do with clot shots.
Coming back is the reverse process.
So note: 1) You can break a complex problem down into smaller pieces to get an approximate answer, and 2) Each piece works in the frame of reference of one large “primary” body.
So now maybe you’re getting a glimmering about why I ranted about Galilean relativity last time. Groundwork.
OK, let’s do another one. Let’s build a spacecraft named…hmmm…Pioneer 10 and send it on a flyby past Jupiter. If we put it on a big honkin’ rocket and make the probe as light as possible, we can put it into an elliptical orbit whose far end is a bit further than Jupiter’s orbit (but not as far as Saturn’s orbit). Now we just time it so it gets there when Jupiter is there and fly by, take a bunch of pictures, and radio them back to Earth.
Now we can alter the timing just a little bit and either aim for just ahead of Jupiter, or just behind it, as we cross Jupiter’s orbit. Either way, we’re close enough to take pictures and make a bunch of other observations at other wavelengths.
But let’s fly behind Jupiter and see what happens. And let’s do it in Jupiter’s frame of reference.
Note that our elliptical (non-escape) orbit about the sun, in Jupiter’s reference frame is a classic hyperbola, a Jupiter escape trajectory.
Jupiter’s direction of motion is shown in purple, left to right (but that’s kind of a misnomer in a diagram that’s in Jupiter’s frame of reference, where Jupiter is not moving). Pioneer 10 came in from the upper right, and exits, state lower right. All motion is counter-clockwise (including Jupiter’s motion when we look in the Sun’s frame of reference).
Here’s an animation of the same thing, showing all the Galilean satellites’ motion as well. If you watch the timing you’ll see it got fairly close to three of them, Io (red), Europa (blue), Ganymede (yellow), and not so close to Callisto (cyan)
You’ll note that when the spacecraft leaves Jupiter’s little mini-solar-system, its velocity is in almost the same direction as Jupiter’s velocity, left to right.
Which means when we switch back to the Sun’s reference frame, we’ve now added Jupiter’s velocity to Pioneer 10’s velocity.
Let’s see that in the Sun’s reference frame…which is slightly rotated with respect to the other diagrams, as you’ll see Jupiter isn’t heading nearly horizontally across this diagram but is instead moving a bit upwards as well at the time of the encounter.
Pioneer 10 just got a speed boost…a big one. Notice that just before the encounter it’s moving at 10.4 km/second relative to the sun, just afterwards it’s doing 23 km/second.
That’s enough to escape the sun, and in fact Pioneer 10 is the first object we’ve ever managed to send permanently outside of our solar system.
Now you might have noticed, in the Jupiter-centered diagrams Pioneer 10 comes in from the upper right, but in the Sun-centered digram it looks as if it’s coming in from the upper left. But again, notice that Jupiter is moving faster than Pioneer 10 at that point…so it’s catching up to it, and from Jupiter’s point of view therefore it comes in from the upper right.
Just like that slow moving asshole in the left lane on the Interstate, as you’re driving east, appears from your point of view to be moving west; first he’s east of you, then he’s west of you.
Pioneer 10 will likely pass by a faint red-dwarf star named HIP 117795 in about 90,000 years (at a distance of 0.75 light years…not terribly close!), but we won’t be receiving any data from it; it was powered by a nuclear battery which appears to have died. The radioisotope that powered it has decayed away. (It still kicked the Energizer bunny’s ass all over the solar system.) Our last successful contact with it was in 2003, at over 80 AUs (over twice the distance to Neptune).
(“Why didn’t they just put a solar panel on the thing?” someone asks. Are you kidding? At 12 billion miles from the Sun? Go stand in the corner and write “solar panels only work 1/6400th as well at 80 AUs and couldn’t power even so much as a light bulb the size of my brain” 100 times.)
OK, let’s have some real fun. Let’s time it really carefully, so that on its way out the solar system after getting kicked in the butt by Jupiter, it then flies past Saturn.
Well, that’s Pioneer 11.
We actually timed that one in such a way that Jupiter sent Pioneer 11 back closer to the sun, on its way to Saturn!
Also note we got it out of the plane of the planets’ orbits a bit; those white lines show you how far above and below the plane Pioneer 11 got.
Here are Jupiter and Saturn centered animations. Note that Pioneer 11 also got timed perfectly to get some really close shots of three of the Galilean moons (all but Europa).
Green: Epimetheus Orange: Junus Blue: Mimas Red: Enceladus (Enceladus is the one with the water volcanoes at the south pole.)
And yes, Saturn looks huge, because this was a very close flyby. And Epimetheus was passed at only 4000 km distance.
The same trick was done by Voyager I in the 1980s, and Voyager II not only went past Jupiter and Saturn, it went past Uranus and Neptune! FOUR gravity assists! So far it’s the only spacecraft to visit either of those two ice giant planets.
Voyager 1’s path, a double gravity assist.
I don’t know why this Voyager 2 animation is so doggone small. (I stretched it some, but it just got blurry. Note that Neptune (red) actually flung the spacecraft below the plane of the solar system.
Voyager I is right now the farthest manmade object out there, it passed up Pioneer 10 in 1998. Pioneer 10 is still second-farthest, though…except that sometime this month Voyager 2 will pass it as well. (They’re in completely different directions, so they won’t be waving “Hi” to each other.)
We’re expected to lose contact with these other spacecraft in the next few years, just as we have with Pioneer 10. Again, the radioisotope that powers the spacecraft is decaying away.
Note that in all of these cases, we just had to get the spacecraft to Jupiter; gravity assists did the rest of the work. And back then, getting to Jupiter was all we could manage without those assists.
As far as Uranus and Neptune are concerned, they have to be lined up just right to be able to benefit from these multiple assists. We just happened to luck out and have this happen just as NASA was figuring out second-generation deep space probes (the Voyagers are much improved over the Pioneers). The alignment is very infrequent, less than once a century (Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the sun, it will have to orbit for more than that to “lap” Neptune again, because Neptune is in a 165 year orbit.)
But there is one other spacecraft on an escape trajectory, and that’s New Horizons, which did a flyby of Pluto. (We went from having very fuzzy, pixelated pictures from Hubble…to having razor sharp pictures of Pluto in a matter of weeks. Before Hubble Pluto was literally a dot on a black and white photo. That’s what I saw as a kid; now I have an actual globe of Pluto. Astounding!) In this case, the spacecraft was light enough that we were able to launch it directly into a solar escape trajectory. We could have sent it directly to Pluto, however we decided to use a gravity assist from Jupiter to cut five years or so off the travel time. (Ironically, we got more data from New Horizons on its flyby of Jupiter than we did from its Pluto flyby.)
But I am going to pause here to emphasize a key point. To speed up you pass behind the planet. In doing so, the spacecraft pulls backward on the planet, slowing it down just the tiniest, tiniest bit…giving the momentum to the spacecraft. This isn’t free; the planet is being ransacked of momentum. But the planet is so much larger that we’ll never be able to measure the difference. (It’s another one of those femtometer type things.)
What happens if you pass in front of the planet? Well, the spacecraft slows down. And this is useful if you want to visit the inner solar system. Mercury can be just as tricky to get to as the outer planets, because in order to drop the perihelion of a spacecraft’s orbit, you have to slow down, a lot. And if you want to go into orbit around Mercury and study it for a while, you need to bring along fuel to do the orbital “injection” which means you need a bigger rocket…or you need to do some gravity assists.
The Mariner 10 mission to Venus and Mercury, of course, used a gravitational assist from Venus to get to Mercury. More recently, however, MESSENGER was sent to orbit Mercury, and used no less than six gravity assists to get itself slowed down enough to do so, one of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury itself. That took seven years of travel time.
Hold onto your hats. The speed of this one is the same as the others…but Mercury orbits a LOT faster than Jupiter:
And we’ve also used inner planets to go to the outer planets. The Galileo probe was sent to orbit Jupiter, but first it got an assist from Venus and two from Earth; it even sent us pictures of Earth as it flew by. Cassini, which orbited Saturn, got assists from Venus, Earth, and (of course) Jupiter. Juno, another Jupiter orbiter, got an assist from Earth.
And of course we’ve now sent probes to the Sun…well we can’t get too close to it, but Parker Solar probe has done five assists off of Venus with two more to come.
A lot of NASA and the ESA’s space achievements, particularly orbiters around other planets, would simply have been impossible without these gravity assists. As computing power increases, we can plan more and more elaborate combinations of gravity assists to do things we couldn’t have before. Who would have imagined a Saturn Orbiter way back when?
But why? Why do we have to do such ridiculous amounts of hoop jumping to do these things? Why not just build a bigger dang rocket?
Next time…
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!