THE WELL
Throw a probe past a planet and let its gravity do the steering. Aim straight at the target and you will miss. Aim wide and let the planet bend you home.
What this machine is actually teaching
Gravity pulls harder the closer you get — and not gently. Halve the distance and the pull is four times stronger, because it follows an inverse square. That is why a probe skimming a planet whips around it and a distant one barely notices.
So the straight line is almost never the path. Real missions aim at where a planet will be, pass on the correct side, and let its gravity do work a rocket engine could never afford. It is called a gravity assist, and Voyager used it to visit four planets on one tank.
You are doing the same arithmetic by eye. Throw wide, watch the curve, adjust. That is orbital mechanics.