How long with Modern Technology to go to the planet Mercury?
I’m just wondering, if we were to use “modern” (today) technology to go to the planet Mercury, how long would it possibly take?
ALSO FOR FUN: If u were to go to mercury, what “HELPFUL” items would you bring with you to enjoy a short vacation
About four or five months. That’s what was achieved already and our technology has not advanced in the meantime to a degree that would significantly change that.
Now if I misunderstood your question and you meant how long would it be before we could send people to Mercury, it’s not so much a question of how long as it is a question of why would we even try. Regarding some projected advance of technology, though, you must consider advances in remote probes and robotic explorers. They’re much cheaper and they can stay on the mission much longer than humans. This seems to be the future for most exploration. If and when humans do go somewhere other than the moon, (which we already did), I’m sure they would pick places far less hostile and with much greater potential for significant discovery.
I’m not sure if we could build a ship hull that could withstand the heat of the Sun at Mercury’s distance for very long. With modern spacecraft though and with special attention to traveling there, I’d say about 104 days
Mariner 10 took about about 4 months (launched in November 1973, flew by Mercury in February 1974).
The Messenger space probe was launched in 2004, and flew by Mercury in January of this year. The reason it took so long was because its orbit wasn’t direct from Earth to Mercury, it flew by Venus and Earth a few times to change its velocity and trajectory.
Check out NASA’s site on Messenger for details:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/