Talk:Rich Purnell/@comment-32215502-20170606052521

I just ran across a NASA paper, analyzing the "Rich Purnell" maneuver.

It's really clear and easy to read, with some nice plots of the orbital trajectories.

Upshot: It would work. Andy Weir did the math, and did it right.

In fact, his trajectory is almost optimal. If the mission is timed to arrive on Mars 24 days earlier, you minimize the fuel requirement (but, then you'd miss Thanksgiving on Mars!).

The only downside pointed out by the NASA analysis is that the maneuver would carry the crew closer to the sun than the nominal mission profile, and they'd risk greater radiation exposure.

But the orbital dynamics are sound. All the timings and velocities (including MAV rendezvous and Taiyang Shen resupply would work, with sensible assumptions.

Check it out for yourselves: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20150019662.pdf