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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 physics, specifically classical mechanics, the three-body problem is to take the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses that orbit each other in space and calculate their subsequent trajectories using Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation.
Every object in a 2-body ballistic trajectory has a constant specific orbital energy equal to the sum of its specific kinetic and specific potential energy: = = =, where = is the standard gravitational parameter of the massive body with mass , and is the radial distance from its center. As an object in an escape trajectory moves outward, its ...
The longitude of the ascending node, also known as the right ascension of the ascending node, is one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space. Denoted with the symbol Ω , it is the angle from a specified reference direction, called the origin of longitude , to the direction of the ascending node (☊), as ...
The argument of periapsis (also called argument of perifocus or argument of pericenter), symbolized as ω (), is one of the orbital elements of an orbiting body. . Parametrically, ω is the angle from the body's ascending node to its periapsis, measured in the dire
Final v s, θ s and r must match the requirements of the target orbit as determined by orbital mechanics (see Orbital flight, above), where final v s is usually the required periapsis (or circular) velocity, and final θ s is 90 degrees. A powered descent analysis would use the same procedure, with reverse boundary conditions.
In orbital mechanics, the Hohmann transfer orbit is an elliptical orbit used to transfer between two circular orbits of different altitudes, in the same plane. The orbital maneuver to perform the Hohmann transfer uses two engine impulses which move a spacecraft onto and off the transfer orbit.
In orbital mechanics, mean motion (represented by n) is the angular speed required for a body to complete one orbit, assuming constant speed in a circular orbit which completes in the same time as the variable speed, elliptical orbit of the actual body. [1]