Rocketship X-M was released 74 years ago today.
"An astronaut crew on their way to the Moon are unexpectedly propelled by gravitational forces and end up on Mars instead."
Follow
Well, now. If we were to throw a conveniently-sized black hole through the Earth-Moon gap during the rocket's transit, could it work to give them a tow, or at least a sufficient trajectory change?
/me reaches for a convenient envelope-back
(We will ignore the resulting mile-high tide as convenient sequel fodder.)
@cerebrate @nyrath @TheSpaceshipper
Yes, it's absolutely possible for a freak encounter with a rogue black hole to produce the required trajectory change.
Basically, a gravity assist maneuver can roughly provide a trajectory change up to twice the escape velocity of the black hole. Obviously a black hole has a ridiculously high escape velocity at its event horizon, but for story purposes we're limited to the escape velocity above where "spaghettification" becomes a problem.