Even with the explanations given here, it's still very counter-intuitive for me.
I think the best thing would be to cut the person in half, send one half towards the sun and the other half out of the solar system.
The issue is that you're starting from earth, and the earth already has a lot of momentum that keeps it from falling into the sun. To get an object from here to the sun you would need to counter the majority of that momentum it already has.
It's not about the propellant, it's about sending a message
Huh. I would have thought that once they break orbit that the sun's gravity well would do the heavy ~~lifting~~ pulling.
If you care to learn orbital mechanics, Kerbal Space Program is a great teacher.
"Breaking orbit" still leaves you in almost the same orbit around the sun as the earth. You need to slow down a lot to bring the periapsis of the orbit within the suns surface.
Imagine that you're standing on a train and have a baseball. If you throw the ball off the train, the ball will still have momentum in the direction of the train's movement.
If you want to throw the ball to a friend the train just passed, you have to be able to throw the ball faster than the train is moving or it will never reach them.
Now all im imagineing is a ball floating mid air and it's beautiful
Mythbusters did this! (Well, the ball fell to the ground, but for a split second it looked like it was hovering after being shot out of a cannon.)
The vessel would still have a lot of speed after escaping earth's orbit, so the trajectory would become a large orbit around the sun. You still have to slow down by about ~30km/s (or ~100 000 km/h) to make that orbit intercept with the sun's surface.
once you break out of earth orbit you are now in an orbit around the sun, similar to earths.
I legitimately want to be cremated by the sun after I die. Doesn't matter how long it takes.
When the sun dies it will take the earth with it iirc so if you can wait until then you're good
Don't worry, we all will. We all came from a sun, and will all return to one.
Knowing my luck I'll end up in a black hole instead.
Instructions unclear. I'm going to the moon on Delta IX.
(Edit: my dumbass just realized it's ∆V, as in velocity. I thought Delta 5 was the name of a type of chemical propellant. Though now that I think of it, it really should be. Damn, and I work for a space company too. At least I'm just in IT).
how much to put them into a space suit and a car, strap them to a rocket and then fire them into orbit around Mars ?
More than Elon had, apparently.
Can a solar sail be used to put a craft into the sun?
That's an interesting question. A regular sail can sail into the wind, but they have a triangular sail, and a keel with water resistance. I don't think any of those things exist in space, so I'm going to guess no. Perhaps some sort of high efficiency propellant keel could make it possible?
My intuition would say no, but to be honest, I don't understand the physics of either solar or watercraft sails.
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