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A space vehicle's flight is determined by application of Newton's second law of motion: =, where F is the vector sum of all forces exerted on the vehicle, m is its current mass, and a is the acceleration vector, the instantaneous rate of change of velocity (v), which in turn is the instantaneous rate of change of displacement.
[1] [2] [3] In classical mechanics for instance, in the action formulation, extremal solutions to the variational principle are on shell and the Euler–Lagrange equations give the on-shell equations. Noether's theorem regarding differentiable symmetries of physical action and conservation laws is another on-shell theorem.
An aeroshell is a rigid heat-shielded shell that helps decelerate and protects a spacecraft vehicle from pressure, heat, and possible debris created by drag during atmospheric entry. Its main components consist of a heat shield (the forebody) and a back shell.
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 shell theorem is an immediate consequence of Gauss's law for gravity saying that ∫ S g ⋅ d S = − 4 π G M {\displaystyle \int _{S}{\mathbf {g} }\cdot \,d{\mathbf {S} }=-4\pi GM} where M is the mass of the part of the spherically symmetric mass distribution that is inside the sphere with radius r and
When in space, the purpose of a propulsion system is to change the velocity, or v, of a spacecraft. [7] In-space propulsion begins where the upper stage of the launch vehicle leaves off, performing the functions of primary propulsion, reaction control, station keeping, precision pointing, and orbital maneuvering.
A space rendezvous is a sequence of orbital maneuvers during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance (e.g. within visual contact).
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board.Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit.