Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to the practical problems concerning the motion of rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation .
The longitude of the ascending node, also known as the right ascension of the ascending node, is one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space. Denoted with the symbol Ω , it is the angle from a specified reference direction, called the origin of longitude , to the direction of the ascending node (☊), as ...
Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit . There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same orbit, but certain schemes, each consisting of a set of six parameters, are commonly used in ...
It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth directly above the Equator, the plane of the satellite's orbit is the same as the Earth's equatorial plane, and the satellite's orbital inclination is 0°. The general case for a circular ...
The chosen orbital altitude is a trade-off between the average thrust needed to counter-act the air drag and the impulse needed to send payloads and people to the station. GOCE which orbited at 255 km (later reduced to 235 km) used ion thrusters to provide up to 20 mN of thrust to compensate for the drag on its frontal area of about 1 m 2 .
In celestial mechanics, the mean anomaly is the fraction of an elliptical orbit's period that has elapsed since the orbiting body passed periapsis, expressed as an angle which can be used in calculating the position of that body in the classical two-body problem.
Final v s, θ s and r must match the requirements of the target orbit as determined by orbital mechanics (see Orbital flight, above), where final v s is usually the required periapsis (or circular) velocity, and final θ s is 90 degrees. A powered descent analysis would use the same procedure, with reverse boundary conditions.
In spaceflight an orbit insertion is an orbital maneuver which adjusts a spacecraft’s trajectory, allowing entry into an orbit around a planet, moon, or other celestial body. [1] An orbit insertion maneuver involves either deceleration from a speed in excess of the respective body's escape velocity, or acceleration to it from a lower speed.