B Can Canceling Orbital Motion Improve Rocket Efficiency?

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Canceling Earth's orbital motion relative to the Milky Way does not improve rocket efficiency for achieving a change in velocity relative to Earth, as observers on Earth can consider themselves at rest. The gravitational effects of the Sun and local stars can influence a rocket's trajectory, but these factors complicate the calculations. When a rocket cancels its orbital velocity and accelerates towards the galactic center, its speed relative to Earth may increase, but the trajectory will be affected by nearby stars. The concept of "local standard of rest" refers to the average motion of stars near the solar system, not a fixed point like the galactic barycenter. Ultimately, achieving high velocities involves complex gravitational interactions that cannot be simplified to a single acceleration vector.
  • #91
metastable said:
I was suggesting a way to possibly overcome the other problem that was mentioned (somewhat unpredictable in advance gravity wells), by using additional fuel.

In a practical sense, the problem you have is not needing more fuel to deal with unpredictable gravity wells. It's that you need really, really, really, really precise aiming of your trajectory from the start (which is impossible without knowing in advance where all those unpredictable gravity wells are), if you want to have any appreciable chance of passing by the galactic center and coming out all the way to the "outbound close approach" point on the other side.

In any case, this is developing into an open-ended series of questions on your part, not a well-defined question with a well-defined answer. So this thread is closed.
 

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