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The principles of flight dynamics are used to model a vehicle's powered flight during launch from the Earth; a spacecraft's orbital flight; maneuvers to change orbit; translunar and interplanetary flight; launch from and landing on a celestial body, with or without an atmosphere; entry through the atmosphere of the Earth or other celestial body ...
"Sky Lift" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein, first published 1953. In the story, a torchship pilot lights out from Earth orbit to Pluto on a mission to deliver a cure to a plague ravaging a research station. [12] Tau Zero, a hard science fiction novel by Poul Anderson, has a spaceship using a constant acceleration drive.
The thrust-to-weight ratio varies continually during a flight. Thrust varies with throttle setting, airspeed, altitude, air temperature, etc. Weight varies with fuel burn and payload changes. For aircraft, the quoted thrust-to-weight ratio is often the maximum static thrust at sea level divided by the maximum takeoff weight. [2]
The flight dynamics of spacecraft differ from those of aircraft in that the aerodynamic forces are of very small, or vanishingly small effect for most of the vehicle's flight, and cannot be used for attitude control during that time. Also, most of a spacecraft's flight time is usually unpowered, leaving gravity as the dominant force.
Since the Oberth maneuver happens in a very limited time (while still at low altitude), to generate a high impulse the engine necessarily needs to achieve high thrust (impulse is by definition the time multiplied by thrust). Thus the Oberth effect is far less useful for low-thrust engines, such as ion thrusters.
Thrust power is the speed multiplied by the drag, is obtained from the lift-to-drag ratio: =; here Wg is the weight (force in newtons, if W is the mass in kilograms); g is standard gravity (its exact value varies, but it averages 9.81 m/s 2).
In orbital mechanics, low-thrust relative transfer is an orbital maneuver in which a chaser spacecraft covers a specific relative distance relative to the target spacecraft using continuous low-thrust system with specific impulse of the order of 4000-8000s. [1]
When in flight, the main or major forces acting on the projectile are gravity, drag, and if present, wind; if in powered flight, thrust; and if guided, the forces imparted by the control surfaces. In small arms external ballistics applications, gravity imparts a downward acceleration on the projectile, causing it to drop from the line-of-sight.