By Gary Michael Church
Triton is my favorite moon and it is so far out there I always think about how long it would take to get there.
Earth escape velocity: 11.2 km/s
If each H-bomb can impart 100 mph then 1000 bombs can provide 100,000 mph. Using this figure for travels to icy bodies in the outer system a rough one way travel time can be estimated.
Launch point outside of Earth’s magnetosphere- lunar orbit
1. Moon 2.380 km/s =4.70 times less escape velocity than Earth
Asteroid belt
2. Ceres 0.510 km/s approximate travel time 120 days/4 months
Jupiter system 200 days/ 7 months
3. Ganymede 2.741 km/s
4. Europa 2.025 km/s
5. Callisto 2.440 km/s (outside of Jupiter’s radiation belts)
Saturnian system 360 days/ 1 year
6. Mimas 0.159 km/s
7. Iapetus 0.573 km/s
8. Titan 2.639 km/s
9. Rhea 0.635 km/s
10.Dione 0.510 km/s
11.Tethys 0.394 km/s
12.Enceladus 0.239 km/s
Uranian system 2 years
13.Miranda 0.193 km/s
14.Ariel 0.558 km/s
15.Umbriel 0.520 km/s
16.Titania 0.773 km/s
17.Oberon 0.726 km/s
Neptunian system 3+years
18.Triton 1.455 km/s (around a 7 year mission to visit my favorite moon round-trip)
Plutonian system 4+years
19.Pluto 1.229 km/s
20.Charon 0.580 km/s
Ice on the Moon 