Flight Question Could you doing a slingshot to breaking velocity?

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Thinking about the moon free return. It is that possible to doing a slingshot to slow you down? Surely that moon did not give you any I am not talk about aero sling. I saying is that use gravity to breaking.
 

Quick_Nick

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If you arrive ahead of the moon, it should pull you back in a retrograde direction relative to Earth. You'll slow down before you start to accelerate toward the moon.
See picture 1: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boolybooly/duna_slingshot01.jpg
Every diagram of a free-return trajectory that I've seen shows the vehicle moving ahead of the secondary body. (Note: The picture I included is not a free-rerurn)
 

MaverickSawyer

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Yes, this is possible, and is often used for missions going "downhill" toward Mercury and Venus. I'm not quite sure how you do it, though.
 
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