Re: 10,000ths of a radian per second
*accelerating something with a mass of around 100kg at 1G is around 100N. Obviously the mass affects how much thrust to accelerate...
Apparently the solar orbiter is 209kg. From what I can find out, it has six ion thrusters. Assuming they are on different axes, and only one can produce thrust at a time, and using F=ma, then the acceleration this produces is about 0.0024 m/s2, it would take the orbiter something like 4,000 years to reach the speed of light using that thrust alone. To be fair though, I don't think they want it going that fast.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
