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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 .
In orbital mechanics, Kepler's equation relates various geometric properties of the orbit of a body subject to a central force.. It was derived by Johannes Kepler in 1609 in Chapter 60 of his Astronomia nova, [1] [2] and in book V of his Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (1621) Kepler proposed an iterative solution to the equation.
In astrodynamics, an orbit equation defines the path of orbiting body around central body relative to , without specifying position as a function of time.Under standard assumptions, a body moving under the influence of a force, directed to a central body, with a magnitude inversely proportional to the square of the distance (such as gravity), has an orbit that is a conic section (i.e. circular ...
Early results about relative orbital motion were published by George William Hill in 1878. [3] Hill's paper discussed the orbital motion of the moon relative to the Earth.. In 1960, W. H. Clohessy and R. S. Wiltshire published the Clohessy–Wiltshire equations to describe relative orbital motion of a general satellite for the purpose of designing control systems to achieve orbital rendezvous.
Vis viva (Latin for "living force") is a term from the history of mechanics and this name is given to the orbital equation originally derived by Isaac Newton. [ 1 ] : 30 It represents the principle that the difference between the total work of the accelerating forces of a system and that of the retarding forces is equal to one half the vis viva ...
Newton's theorem simplifies orbital problems in classical mechanics by eliminating inverse-cube forces from consideration. The radial and angular motions, r ( t ) and θ 1 ( t ), can be calculated without the inverse-cube force; afterwards, its effect can be calculated by multiplying the angular speed of the particle
In celestial mechanics, Lambert's problem is concerned with the determination of an orbit from two position vectors and the time of flight, posed in the 18th century by Johann Heinrich Lambert and formally solved with mathematical proof by Joseph-Louis Lagrange. It has important applications in the areas of rendezvous, targeting, guidance, and ...
In orbital mechanics (a subfield of celestial mechanics), Gauss's method is used for preliminary orbit determination from at least three observations (more observations increases the accuracy of the determined orbit) of the orbiting body of interest at three different times.