{"id":1140,"date":"2004-11-19T09:43:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-19T08:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/sailing_through_space\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:30:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:30:53","slug":"sailing_through_space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/sailing_through_space\/","title":{"rendered":"Navegaci\u00f3n espacial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hasta ahora, casi todas las misiones espaciales han utilizado motores de cohete que funcionan con combustible qu\u00edmico. Por desgracia, estos no son muy eficientes. Por ejemplo, m\u00e1s de la mitad del peso de lanzamiento de la nave espacial Rosetta de la ESA correspond\u00eda al combustible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

La ESA est\u00e1 estudiando actualmente formas de reducir la cantidad de combustible que se transporta. Una de las ideas es un motor i\u00f3nico, que utiliza una \u2018pistola\u2019 el\u00e9ctrica para expulsar gas al espacio.<\/p>\n

Aunque el empuje hacia delante del motor es muy leve, la velocidad va aumentando poco a poco. Con el tiempo, permite que una nave espacial viaje a gran velocidad.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Representaci\u00f3n art\u00edstica de SMART-1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

La sonda SMART 1 ha probado con \u00e9xito un motor de iones en su viaje de la Tierra a la Luna. Por cada kilogramo de combustible consumido, ese motor produce un aumento de la velocidad de la nave diez veces mayor que si fuera un motor cohete ordinario.<\/p>\n

La ESA tambi\u00e9n est\u00e1 estudiando la posibilidad de usar naves espaciales que utilicen 'velas solares' en lugar de motores cohete. La luz solar 'sopla' sobre una vela de gran tama\u00f1o y puede propulsar una nave espacial hacia otros planetas. Despu\u00e9s de muchos meses de viaje con el viento del Sol, una nave de ese tipo podr\u00eda alcanzar una velocidad de 360.000 km\/h.<\/p>\n

Otra forma de ahorrar combustible y peso consiste en reducir la velocidad atravesando la atm\u00f3sfera superior de un planeta. La ESA tiene previsto construir una nave espacial que entrar\u00e1 en \u00f3rbita alrededor de Marte utilizando este m\u00e9todo de \u2018aerocaptura\u2019.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until now, nearly all space missions have used rocket motors that feed on chemical fuel. Unfortunately, these are not very efficient. For example, over half the launch weight of ESA’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"esa_banner_image":"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2003\/04\/close-up_view_of_smart-1_s_stationary_plasma_thruster2\/17900310-2-eng-GB\/Close-up_view_of_SMART-1_s_stationary_plasma_thruster.jpg","esa_banner_description":"Close-up view of SMART-1's stationary plasma thruster","esa_banner_credit":"ESA 2002. Illustration by Medialab.","esa_banner_licence":"ESA Standard Licence","esa_banner_detail_url":"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Images\/2003\/04\/Close-up_view_of_SMART-1_s_stationary_plasma_thruster2","esa_external_url":"","esa_external_new_window":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[10,44,40],"tags":[2],"panel":[],"language":[],"age":[],"duration":[],"resource_type":[],"audience":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learn","category-spacecraft","category-technology","tag-background-article"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4867,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions\/4867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"panel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panel?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"age","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"duration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/duration?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"resource_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_type?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}