I'm just asking if it's possible, in theory, to gain speed if you could do that. I'd like to get an idea of how fast you could get an object to move using natural forces.

I'm just asking if it's possible, in theory, to gain speed if you could do that.

Not only in theory.

In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically in order to save propellant, time, and expense. Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate a spacecraft, that is, to increase or decrease its speed and/or redirect its path.

The "assist" is provided by the motion of the gravitating body as it pulls on the spacecraft.[1] The techniques were first proposed as a mid-course manoeuvre in 1961 by Michael Minovitch working on the three-body problem. It was used by interplanetary probes from Mariner 10 onwards, including the two Voyager probes' notable flybys of Jupiter and Saturn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist
A rotating black hole might provide additional assistance, if its spin axis is aligned the right way. General relativity predicts that a large spinning mass-produces frame-dragging—close to the object, space itself is dragged around in the direction of the spin. Any ordinary rotating object produces this effect.

I'd like to get an idea of how fast you could get an object to move using natural forces.

That depends.

I'm just asking if it's possible, in theory, to gain speed if you could do that. I'd like to get an idea of how fast you could get an object to move using natural forces.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/basics/grav/primer.php

Galactic ejection speed is easily possible as we have seen stars ejected from their galaxy's.

Google is your friend https://www.google.com/search?q=gravity+assist+equations&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

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[/quote]That depends.[/quote]
On what? If I had a suitable ring of stars, each with large planets, and time wasn't a factor for me, could I continue to build speed traveling around that ring using gravity assist? There's an obvious limit, of course, but I'm wondering what percentage of that could be reached.

That depends.

On what? If I had a suitable ring of stars, each with large planets, and time wasn't a factor for me, could I continue to build speed traveling around that ring using gravity assist? There's an obvious limit, of course, but I'm wondering what percentage of that could be reached.

It depends on the mass of the object giving you gravity assist and how fast you travel.
In theory the limit is the speed of light.
I think you need to pass near some blackholes to get that fast.

BTW. It only take one year to accelerate to speed of light at 1 G (9.81 m/s/s ) :)

That depends.

On what? If I had a suitable ring of stars, each with large planets, and time wasn't a factor for me, could I continue to build speed traveling around that ring using gravity assist? There's an obvious limit, of course, but I'm wondering what percentage of that could be reached.

It depends on the mass of the object giving you gravity assist and how fast you travel.
In theory the limit is the speed of light.
I think you need to pass near some blackholes to get that fast.

BTW. It only take one year to accelerate to speed of light at 1 G (9.81 m/s/s ) :)

I want to stay away from black holes for this. Assuming I couldn't carry enough fuel to accelerate for a year on my own I would need some mechanism to get me as much speed as I could before I turn on the engine.
If you had plenty of time and resources to investigate what really happens to an object traveling close to light speed you'd have to do something similar, I would think.

If you had plenty of time and resources to investigate what really happens to an object traveling close to light speed you'd have to do something similar, I would think.

What really happens travelling in space is not something different what we experience everyday. Speed is relative.
I also think that all object in the Universe are travelling with the speed of light in the space-time.
It's the direction in space-time when travelling that can be confusing.
Time change when you are travelling to or from an observer.

If you had plenty of time and resources to investigate what really happens to an object traveling close to light speed you'd have to do something similar, I would think.

What really happens travelling in space is not something different what we experience everyday. Speed is relative.
I also think that all object in the Universe are travelling with the speed of light in the space-time.
It's the direction in space-time when travelling that can be confusing.
Time change when you are travelling to or from an observer.

Relativity is the best theory we have but all theories have their limits. We can postulate all day about what happens to space and time and mass at those speeds and most of that works on the level we need it to work, but it's possible that there are questions we wouldn't know to ask until we actually did it. If we could design a semi-autonomous laboratory, accelerate it to as near light speed as we could get and then slow it down and retrieve it, I suspect we could learn a lot.
We can't do something like that now, obviously, but someone who had the time and the ability might want to.

If you had plenty of time and resources to investigate what really happens to an object traveling close to light speed you'd have to do something similar, I would think.

What really happens travelling in space is not something different what we experience everyday. Speed is relative.
I also think that all object in the Universe are travelling with the speed of light in the space-time.
It's the direction in space-time when travelling that can be confusing.
Time change when you are travelling to or from an observer.

Relativity is the best theory we have but all theories have their limits. We can postulate all day about what happens to space and time and mass at those speeds and most of that works on the level we need it to work, but it's possible that there are questions we wouldn't know to ask until we actually did it. If we could design a semi-autonomous laboratory, accelerate it to as near light speed as we could get and then slow it down and retrieve it, I suspect we could learn a lot.
We can't do something like that now, obviously, but someone who had the time and the ability might want to.

We have already done that.
Mercury's orbit make its round faster than predicted. It didn't race ahead. The precession was 93 percent accounted for, but no one could adequately explain that last seven percent.
http://io9.com/the-200-year-old-mystery-of-mercurys-orbit-solved-1458642219

This shouldn't be possible. Researchers say they've detected a supermassive black hole at the center of a newly found galaxy that's far bigger than current theories allow.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/26/world/black-hole-is-30-times-expected-size/index.html?sr=fb092615blackholeis30timesexpectedsize535pStoryLink

I was actually thinking about how much speed you could gain if you started in a system with more planets than we have, aim yourself at another system and use it's planets, and so on.

well, plotting that trajectory is very difficult...a 1" of could mean a difference by several ° later...so it could mean a difference from going into empty space or hitting one of those planets...
look @ us...we haven't sent any probe to another system with all our 9 planets @ disposal! :(

Has anybody found another solar system with more than one exoplanet?

yes!;)

That was a short answer:)

well us asked...
;)

didn't say in how many...or which!
;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

That depends.

On what? If I had a suitable ring of stars, each with large planets, and time wasn't a factor for me, could I continue to build speed traveling around that ring using gravity assist? There's an obvious limit, of course, but I'm wondering what percentage of that could be reached.

It depends on the mass of the object giving you gravity assist and how fast you travel.
In theory the limit is the speed of light.
I think you need to pass near some blackholes to get that fast.

BTW. It only take one year to accelerate to speed of light at 1 G (9.81 m/s/s ) :)

unless u turn into "spaghettification"...
;)

This shouldn't be possible. Researchers say they've detected a supermassive black hole at the center of a newly found galaxy that's far bigger than current theories allow.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/26/world/black-hole-is-30-times-expected-size/index.html?sr=fb092615blackholeis30timesexpectedsize535pStoryLink

back to d drawing board!
:D

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Let me try this again. It seemed like such a simple question.
Forget why I might want to do it or how long it would take - I just want to know if it would work. A ring of stars, each with large planets - we know their mass and their orbits and rotations - and we're sending something that can course correct on it's own.
Could it build speed traveling around that ring by picking up gravity assist from those planets?

Let me try this again. It seemed like such a simple question.
Forget why I might want to do it or how long it would take - I just want to know if it would work. A ring of stars, each with large planets - we know their mass and their orbits and rotations - and we're sending something that can course correct on it's own.
Could it build speed traveling around that ring by picking up gravity assist from those planets?

yes!
;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Let me try this again. It seemed like such a simple question.
Forget why I might want to do it or how long it would take - I just want to know if it would work. A ring of stars, each with large planets - we know their mass and their orbits and rotations - and we're sending something that can course correct on it's own.
Could it build speed traveling around that ring by picking up gravity assist from those planets?

yes!
;)

Thank you! It seemed logical that one could use a circle of stars with planets as an accelerator but logic gets me into trouble too often.
Right now it's telling me that at some point whatever is traveling would be forced out of the ring and into a widening spiral if you wanted it to keep accelerating.
I don't know what you could do with that, but the idea of using an arm of the galaxy as a sling has a certain esthetic appeal to it.

Let me try this again. It seemed like such a simple question.
Forget why I might want to do it or how long it would take - I just want to know if it would work. A ring of stars, each with large planets - we know their mass and their orbits and rotations - and we're sending something that can course correct on it's own.
Could it build speed traveling around that ring by picking up gravity assist from those planets?

yes!
;)

Thank you! It seemed logical that one could use a circle of stars with planets as an accelerator but logic gets me into trouble too often.
Right now it's telling me that at some point whatever is traveling would be forced out of the ring and into a widening spiral if you wanted it to keep accelerating.
I don't know what you could do with that, but the idea of using an arm of the galaxy as a sling has a certain esthetic appeal to it.

maybe this will explain more:

;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Let me try this again. It seemed like such a simple question.
Forget why I might want to do it or how long it would take - I just want to know if it would work. A ring of stars, each with large planets - we know their mass and their orbits and rotations - and we're sending something that can course correct on it's own.
Could it build speed traveling around that ring by picking up gravity assist from those planets?

yes!
;)

Thank you! It seemed logical that one could use a circle of stars with planets as an accelerator but logic gets me into trouble too often.
Right now it's telling me that at some point whatever is traveling would be forced out of the ring and into a widening spiral if you wanted it to keep accelerating.
I don't know what you could do with that, but the idea of using an arm of the galaxy as a sling has a certain esthetic appeal to it.

maybe this will explain more:

;)

Apart from the technology it's a mission that Newton himself could plan if he had all the data.
Up to a point, anyway. He'd probably think that relativity was magic.

Let me try this again. It seemed like such a simple question.
Forget why I might want to do it or how long it would take - I just want to know if it would work. A ring of stars, each with large planets - we know their mass and their orbits and rotations - and we're sending something that can course correct on it's own.
Could it build speed traveling around that ring by picking up gravity assist from those planets?

yes!
;)

Thank you! It seemed logical that one could use a circle of stars with planets as an accelerator but logic gets me into trouble too often.
Right now it's telling me that at some point whatever is traveling would be forced out of the ring and into a widening spiral if you wanted it to keep accelerating.
I don't know what you could do with that, but the idea of using an arm of the galaxy as a sling has a certain esthetic appeal to it.

maybe this will explain more:

;)

Apart from the technology it's a mission that Newton himself could plan if he had all the data.
Up to a point, anyway. He'd probably think that relativity was magic.

don't think so...probably would figure it out within a week!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=danYFxGnFxQ
;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

don't think so...probably would figure it out within a week!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=danYFxGnFxQ
;)

You might be right - he was pretty smart - but Einstein contradicted a lot of what Newton held true about absolutes and the fundamental nature of reality. That's a hell of a paradigm shift for someone who still believed in alchemy, metaphysics and mysticism.

don't think so...probably would figure it out within a week!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=danYFxGnFxQ
;)

You might be right - he was pretty smart - but Einstein contradicted a lot of what Newton held true about absolutes and the fundamental nature of reality. That's a hell of a paradigm shift for someone who still believed in alchemy, metaphysics and mysticism.

Do you have any examples of Einstein contradicting Newton?