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BobTheAverage
BobTheAverage
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The answer depends on what close means.

If your spacecraft can make a "modest effort at station keeping" park it in a halo orbit near the first or second Lagrange point between the planet and the sun. The Earth-Sun-L1 point is 0.01 AU from Earth. If your spacecraft cannot make any effort at station keeping, those orbits will eventually decay.

If one of the moons is far more massive than the rest, you could orbit that moon, or station-keep in the planet-moon-lagrange points.

You could simply orbit the planet very closely or farther away than its other bodies. If you are too far out, you would be orbiting the sun instead of the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle to the elliptic and slightly closer or farther away than the planet. The pilot would come close to the planet, set the orbit, and then eject. The ship would have an orbital period slightly longer than the orbit of the planet. It would cross the elliptic twice a year. Each of these crosses would have a small chance of changing its orbit due to interaction with the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle at the same distance as the planet. This would give you the same orbital period as the planet. You would have to make sure that your orbit crosses the elliptic when the planet is not around. If the pilot ejects at the right time, sufficiently far from the planet, the life boat can use the ship's momentum and make a smallish course correction to get to the planet. This solution involves chilling out in a life boat for a month or two.

You could get lucky. Space is big. The odds of actually crashing into anything in a given year are astronomically small. Eventually it will happen, but eventually might be a million years from now. If everything that could crash into something did, we wouldn't have any near Earth asteroids.

The answer depends on what close means.

If your spacecraft can make a "modest effort at station keeping" park it in a halo orbit near the first or second Lagrange point between the planet and the sun. The Earth-Sun-L1 point is 0.01 AU from Earth. If your spacecraft cannot make any effort at station keeping, those orbits will eventually decay.

If one of the moons is far more massive than the rest, you could orbit that moon, or station-keep in the planet-moon-lagrange points.

You could simply orbit the planet very closely or farther away than its other bodies. If you are too far out, you would be orbiting the sun instead of the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle to the elliptic and slightly closer or farther away than the planet. The pilot would come close to the planet, set the orbit, and then eject. The ship would have an orbital period slightly longer than the orbit of the planet. It would cross the elliptic twice a year. Each of these crosses would have a small chance of changing its orbit due to interaction with the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle at the same distance as the planet. This would give you the same orbital period as the planet. You would have to make sure that your orbit crosses the elliptic when the planet is not around. If the pilot ejects at the right time, sufficiently far from the planet, the life boat can use the ship's momentum and make a smallish course correction to get to the planet. This solution involves chilling out in a life boat for a month or two.

You could get lucky. Space is big. The odds of actually crashing into anything in a given year are astronomically small. Eventually it will happen, but eventually might be a million years from now.

The answer depends on what close means.

If your spacecraft can make a "modest effort at station keeping" park it in a halo orbit near the first or second Lagrange point between the planet and the sun. The Earth-Sun-L1 point is 0.01 AU from Earth. If your spacecraft cannot make any effort at station keeping, those orbits will eventually decay.

If one of the moons is far more massive than the rest, you could orbit that moon, or station-keep in the planet-moon-lagrange points.

You could simply orbit the planet very closely or farther away than its other bodies. If you are too far out, you would be orbiting the sun instead of the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle to the elliptic and slightly closer or farther away than the planet. The pilot would come close to the planet, set the orbit, and then eject. The ship would have an orbital period slightly longer than the orbit of the planet. It would cross the elliptic twice a year. Each of these crosses would have a small chance of changing its orbit due to interaction with the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle at the same distance as the planet. This would give you the same orbital period as the planet. You would have to make sure that your orbit crosses the elliptic when the planet is not around. If the pilot ejects at the right time, sufficiently far from the planet, the life boat can use the ship's momentum and make a smallish course correction to get to the planet. This solution involves chilling out in a life boat for a month or two.

You could get lucky. Space is big. The odds of actually crashing into anything in a given year are astronomically small. Eventually it will happen, but eventually might be a million years from now. If everything that could crash into something did, we wouldn't have any near Earth asteroids.

Source Link
BobTheAverage
BobTheAverage
  • 1.8k
  • 13
  • 16

The answer depends on what close means.

If your spacecraft can make a "modest effort at station keeping" park it in a halo orbit near the first or second Lagrange point between the planet and the sun. The Earth-Sun-L1 point is 0.01 AU from Earth. If your spacecraft cannot make any effort at station keeping, those orbits will eventually decay.

If one of the moons is far more massive than the rest, you could orbit that moon, or station-keep in the planet-moon-lagrange points.

You could simply orbit the planet very closely or farther away than its other bodies. If you are too far out, you would be orbiting the sun instead of the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle to the elliptic and slightly closer or farther away than the planet. The pilot would come close to the planet, set the orbit, and then eject. The ship would have an orbital period slightly longer than the orbit of the planet. It would cross the elliptic twice a year. Each of these crosses would have a small chance of changing its orbit due to interaction with the planet.

You could orbit the sun at a 90 degree angle at the same distance as the planet. This would give you the same orbital period as the planet. You would have to make sure that your orbit crosses the elliptic when the planet is not around. If the pilot ejects at the right time, sufficiently far from the planet, the life boat can use the ship's momentum and make a smallish course correction to get to the planet. This solution involves chilling out in a life boat for a month or two.

You could get lucky. Space is big. The odds of actually crashing into anything in a given year are astronomically small. Eventually it will happen, but eventually might be a million years from now.