# Placing a cargo on a parabolic orbit from europa moon of Jupiter

## Main Question or Discussion Point

Hello,
The problem is quite simple.You are an astronautics engineer in an established colony on europa,one of jupiter's moons and your boss asks you what would be the minimum velocity so that a cargo full of wastes or garbage is placed on a parbolic (neglecting the mass of europa versus the mass of Jupiter)in order to not pollute any of Jupiter's moons.
If you could help me that would be great.
Thank you

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Bandersnatch
You're looking for "escape velocity", also known as "second cosmic velocity"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity

The equation is simple. Just plug in the mass of Jupiter and Europa's orbital radius.
$v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}},$

Filip Larsen
Gold Member
Remember to take into account that the garbage already is travelling at some speed releative to Jupiter when it sits on the surface of Europa prior to launch (hint: the speed of Europa in its orbit around Jupiter can be assumed (using what assumption?) to be an expression very similar to the escape speed Bandersnatch gave you).

If you're just trying to get rid of garbage, why not give it escape velocity from Europa (as previously specified) and drop it into Jupiter's massive gravity well? No matter what else happens, that garbage will never be a threat to space travel in the future, at that point. 2.02 km/s is fairly easy to attain - it's not even as high as the Moon (at 2.4 km/s) and if you aim in the right direction, Jupiter will catch your garbage.