This chapter discusses the basic problem of orbital mechanics, namely when the spacecraft is acted upon by the gravity of a much larger spherical body, such as a planet, a moon, or the Sun. The motion of two spherical bodies under mutual gravitational attraction is the primary problem of orbital mechanics, and can be solved analytically. Since such a motion obeys the laws of planetary motion first discovered by Kepler, two‐body orbital mechanics is also termed Keplerian motion. The chapter shows that a constant angular momentum results in a planar two‐body motion, and rectilinear and circular orbits are special shapes of Keplerian trajectories. A further classification of Keplerian trajectories can be derived from the constant eccentricity vector. The orbital velocity vector is typically resolved in a moving coordinate frame with its origin at the centre of the orbiting mass and having mutually perpendicular axes along the radial direction and the circumferential direction.
Keplerian Motion
Foundations of Space Dynamics ; 41-67
2021-02-01
27 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Springer Verlag | 2023
|Wiley | 2015
|Springer Verlag | 2015
|Springer Verlag | 2023
|Springer Verlag | 2015
|