Questions tagged [orbital-maneuver]
In spaceflight, an orbital maneuver is the use of propulsion systems to change the orbit of a spacecraft.
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Transfer between circular orbits in up to 5 maneuvers
There are 2 circular orbits with different inclination and RAAN. I have to transfer from a specific point (true anomaly given) of one orbit to a given point of another in 1 month. The period of the ...
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On the dynamics of two connected objects located at different circular orbits
I'm just thinking about the qualitative and quantitative implications of a hypothetical orbital problem, but what I ended up does not make sense as it should.
In particular, assume that two objects ...
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Can someone help Scott Manley explain this Snoopy-capturing maneuver?
In his recent video Apollo 10's Lunar Module Snoopy Is Lost In Space - Could We Bring it Home? Scott Manley uses some fancy supplemental techniques in KSP to simulate and explain a possible mission to ...
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How often are satellites in GEO moved to follow customer demand?
The BBC News article Inmarsat lays big satellite order with Airbus says:
The firm is buying three new spacecraft to augment its Global Xpress system, which provides connectivity to on-the-move and ...
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How much Delta-V is needed for Orbital Maintenance?
My question is aimed at understanding the how much Delta-V is needed for orbital maintenance for different orbits. Obviously, there still is some residual air resistance that decreases as the orbital ...
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How do I calculate the change in the argument of periapsis after a plane change maneuver?
Let's say I have a spacecraft in an initial geocentric orbit with the following parameters: a = 7,960,000 m, e = 0.010, $\Omega$ = 180$^{\circ}$, i = 98$^{\circ}$, $\omega$ = 90$^{\circ}$, $\theta_0$ =...
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Using the distance components to calculate minimal dV randezvouz trajectory
The are objects on 100 circular orbits, 1 object on each orbit. One orbit is said to be initial (I) and others are final (F) .
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Lambert problem solver needed for custom gravity in Python
I need to solve the Lambert problem, however, I have a custom gravity model.
My ODE of motion is:
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Determine the “nearest” orbit
There are 100 circular orbits with different radii, inclinations and RAAN. The nearest orbit by definition is the one, which requires less $\Delta V$ for a transfer.
Assumed that 2 impulsive ...
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How will Starlink satellites deploy from the fairing and reach their orbits?
Elon Musk posted this picture of the first 60 Starlink satellites packed densely into the fairing of the Falcon scheduled to launch in a few hours.
There doesn't appear to be a launcher or ejector to ...
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Can the ISS boost maneuver engine be heard by the astronauts on board?
In the extremely cool demonstration video Demonstration of Acceleration Inside the International Space Station During a Reboost ISS Expedition 22 Commander Jeffry Williams says near the end at ...
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How to find Horizons ephemerides or Spice kernels for the cis-lunar halo orbits of the Themis B & C) spacecraft?
The Themis spacecraft B and C have been renamed ARTEMIS P1 and P2 and moved around in cis-lunar space from Earth orbit to Lunar orbit.
This transfer involved libration point orbits, as discussed in ...
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How to find the transfer orbit from a initial circular orbit to a final elliptical orbit
Is a hohmann transfer or bi-elliptical transfer more efficient for this case? How can I find the transfer orbit that conserves the most deltaV?
I will be going from a circular Earth centered orbit ...
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What if GOCE rolled 90°?
Reading this question: Is GOCE a satellite or aircraft?
I wondered what would happen if GOCE rolled 90° in either direction, so that it's solar panels become parallel to Earth's horizon, and then ...
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Minor query on mid course correction and cryogenic oxygen tank incident in Apollo 13 flight path
In the flight path of Apollo 13 (data taken from Wikipedia), the first mid course correction was done at 30:40:50 and cryogenic oxygen tank incident occurred at 55:54:53. I have three small questions ...
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Could a satellite in GEO-orbit make an evasive maneuver to avoid an anti-satellite impactor?
Communication satellites orbit at an altitude a couple of hundred times above the satellite that the Indian government recently shot down. Also GPS-satellites are about one hundred times further up ...
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What is the smallest body in which a sling shot maneuver can be performed?
This question asks about the smallest sling shot maneuver performed. What was the smallest intentional, acknowledged slingshot maneuver?
I'm asking how small of an object be to perform a sling shot ...
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Rendezvouses in halo or lissajous orbits
If a spacecraft was in an EM-L2 halo/lissajous orbit, and another craft would was going to approach EM-L2 a few days later, could they rendezvous immediately or is there a limitation when the second ...
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Fastest orbit transfer constrained by maximum g-force magnitude
Let's consider an imaginary constant 1g rocket from Earth to Mars. What is the fastest possible trajectory?
Intuitively it seems that the fastest travel time is achieved with the "radial" trajectory (...
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What was the smallest intentional, acknowledged slingshot maneuver?
I'll keep it short but please read through!
Gravitation's $1/r$ potential means everything in the solar system is pulling on everything all the time.
Gravitational slingshot maneuvers are normally ...
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1answer
106 views
Space Shuttle Orbiter VRCS
I am looking for details on the Space Shuttle Orbiter Vernier Reaction Control System (VRCS), used for fine maneuvers on orbit, such as docking. Wikipedia has very little information on the system. ...
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ISS location identification; estimate size and direction of astronaut acceleration puzzler
note: This question addresses the same video and phenomenon described in this answer (which I found after posting this) but here I'm asking for an analysis of the trajectories of the test masses (the ...
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Orbit class or library or functions [closed]
I am (like a hundred other people, like a thousand other people) trying to make a space flight simulator. I'm not a student. (That said, I found Orbit – space flight sim. It’s excellent.* You ...
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What's the lowest altitude that an ion engine has been used for a significant orbital maneuver?
I'm thinking about trying to calculate something for Where do ion propulsion's ions go? Do they remain in the solar system or shoot out into interstellar space?
Excluding low altitude tests of ion ...
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How would one calculate the Lunar liftoff thrust required for a spacecraft?
I used the thrust to weight ratio of 2.12 to determine the thrust my spacecraft needs for a lunar liftoff, Apollo Lunar Ascent Stage Thrust to Weight Ratio.
Is this a proper way of determining and ...
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Use of thrusters for Collision Avoidance Maneuver
I'm building an orbit propagator that gives the position of two satellites at time T. The position are expressed in ECI and after that are being transformed in LVLH frame (as mentioned ECI to LVLH ...
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Why does the Apollo-8 Trans-Lunar Injection burn appear to be pulsing in this photo?
This tweet called my attention to The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum story Photographing Apollo 8's Orbit Toward the Moon. The story is quite an interesting bit of space history and worth a ...
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Did the astronauts of Gemini 4 have any realistic rendezvous simulator training of orbital mechanic effects?
Gemini 4 was launched on June 3, 1965. It mission included the first attempt of a rendezvous manoeuvrer in space. The rendezvous test failed.
Two years earlier, in June 1963, the Rendezvous Docking ...
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How do long range space probes adjust trajectory?
More specifically, after the main launch adjustments have been made using the primary boosters and temporary adjusting propellants how might even the slightest trajectory and orientation corrections ...
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How does SpaceX's Dragon get to the ISS?
How does SpaceX's Dragon capsule get to the ISS? Does Dragon use the onboard Draco thrusters in order to raise its orbit to the station or does the second stage of the Falcon 9 perform the majority of ...
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Quantitatively, how deep are the stable equilibrium points in GEO? How much delta-v to move from one to the other?
This answer discusses a spacecraft in GEO using a two-impulse (circular → elliptical → circular) raise & lower maneuver to move (phase) itself by 180 degrees in longitude then return to synchrony. ...
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Delta-v to move from GEO to GEO
To move a satellite in geostationary orbit, 166°55′E, to the antipode, 13° 4' 3.2" W, what delta-V would be needed for this to be accomplished?
As for time constraints, I do not know what are the ...
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How often has (or how common is it for) the ISS's orbit been propulsive lowered intentionally?
The question Which engine worked the hardest to keep the ISS in orbit? laments the tireless efforts to keep the ISS from falling from the sky by regularly executing propulsive orbit-raising maneuvers.
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Which engine worked the hardest to keep the ISS in orbit?
The ISS has spent two decades fighting drag caused by its large size and huge solar panels pushing through the tail-end of Earth's atmosphere only a few hundred kilometers above its surface.
Question:...
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What are the practical uses of a state transition matrix?
I am studying different dynamical models of relative motion of satellites. In my work, I've always just used a numerical integrator like RK78 to integrate the cartesian system of equations:
$\dot{r}=...
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Help choosing a gravity assist scenario for this problem
The problem stated below is from an assignment I was given. My initial approach involved doing a direct Hohmann Transfer to Saturn. This approach violated the fuel constraints and hence was deemed ...
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Proper handling of terminal guidance of finite burn closed-loop execution for rendezvous conditions?
I'm writing some software which uses Optimal Control Theory / Calculus of Variations / Pontrayagin's Minimum Principle / Primer Vector Theory to do closed-loop execution of finite burns (in KSP).
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What orbital maneuver(s) did the SOHO have to execute for halo orbit insertion?
I started, but did not complete, Classical Mechanics as an undergraduate, decades ago so I will not understand a highly technical answer.
I am writing a novel where an astronaut needs to execute HOI (...
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Is it possible to supply 47 tons of payload to the orbit with 5 tons of fuel?
There are 2 orbits:
Circular orbit with 200km altitude
Circular orbit with 800km altitude
The space tug is already on the first orbit. Its dry mass is 960kg, the total mass of fuel is 5250 kg.
It ...
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218 views
Is it OK to spend 3 tons of fuel for the orbit transfer?
There are 2 coplanar orbits (same $i$,$\Omega$,$\omega$):
Apogee and perigee on 200km
Perigee on 700km, apogee on 8000 km
I used the izzo.lambert function from ...
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1answer
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Multiple revolution Lambert problem
The Lambert problem solution determines the $\Delta V$ required to transfer from r1 to r2 in ...
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237 views
Optimal transfer between to identical orbits with different RAAN
Two orbits are given with the identical orbital elements, despite the RAAN, which differs by 90 degrees. The inclination is 80 deg, AOP is 310 deg, apogee is on 10000km, perigee on 1000km altitude.
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How would a Jupiter flyby have helped to get to the Sun? Why was it later ruled out?
The quote below surprised me. What were the orbital mechanical details of using a Jupiter flyby to get a probe from Earth so close to the Sun? Was a "U-turn" possible; single flyby of Jupiter into a ...
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Difference between approach maneuvers to the insertion points of halo and Lissajous orbit?
I have read that spacecraft use two mid-course corrections to approach the Lagrange point, then do a final orbital insertion maneuver to enter into a halo orbit.
Are there any specifics about this ...
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What are common guidance strategies for a finite orbital maneuver?
Suppose we have our spacecraft in a circular orbit around the Moon and we want to transfer it to an elliptic orbit with a medium-thrust (10-100N) retrograde burn. Based on the current state estimate, ...
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How to match orbital speeds of 2 or more satellites in different orbits?
Satellite ME is orbit around the Moon and Earth. Satellites E is around Earth. I understand the low orbit satellites orbit at higher speeds. Can Sat ME match the speed of any of Satellites E at any ...
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Will an array of multiple ion engines still be more efficient than a single chemical engine?
I was just thinking the other day and got this idea out of my head. I'm not an aerospace expert or anything even close to it, so please understand even if this turns out to be a really basic question:
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Meteosat 11 big deboost/reboost
Before Feb 2018, the meteosat 11 (MSG-4) were periodically reboosted approximately every 85 days:
EDIT: added the orbital inclination plot to show the clearly visible variation to both semi-major ...
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Was the gravity turn used in early spaceflight?
Reading through the Wikipedia article about Gravity Turn, specifically the Use in spaceflight section, it seems that the Gravity Turn was not used in early spaceflight. Is that correct? For example, ...
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Piggybacking to Enceladus
The latest NASA New Frontiers selection did not select any finalist proposals to Enceladus, which is one of the most promising targets for life in the solar system. It did however select Dragonfly, ...
