[Physics] Energy to move The Earth to mars’ orbit

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How much energy would it take to add to the earth's orbital velocity to push the earth into mars' orbit?

My thoughts:
So, in 1-2 billion years, the sun will gradually get brighter.

Suppose a future civilization wanted to gradually move the earth farther from the sun. And for, now, please ignore that Mars is already in Mars' orbit. let's pretend there is room there.

I'm wondering what the answer looks like, in power terms, over the course of a billion years? are we talking more power than modern civilization, or if we have a billion years can we do it with just a small generator's worth of power output?

Best Answer

From a purely energy point of view, calculate the kinetic and potential (relative to the sun) energies of earth at Mars' orbit minus that in its current orbit.

The kinetic energy is very straight forward, 1/2 m v2. Velocity (approximating to circular orbit) is only a function of the mass of the sun and the orbital radius. Or, you can simply look up the values for Earth and Mars.

Potential energy is more complicated than the mgh approximation we use in everyday lives here on the surface of Earth, because g is no longer a constant since the distance to the sun changes substantially. You have to solve the integral or look up the formula.

However, how to start with power here on Earth and actually cause the sustained force it would take is totally another matter. What I describe above is just that absolute minimum energy it would require without violating conservation of energy. There is a long way between that and a working system.

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