In case you watch sci-fi films, you’d assume that flying a spaceship is rather like driving a barely extra sophisticated automobile (or a Winnebago in Spaceballs). And George Lucas gave us those galactic battles with pilots who seem like they’re flying fighter jets on Earth.
Nicely, dangerous information: Area is basically, actually totally different. Specifically, shifting a automobile in orbit round Earth is far more sophisticated than that. The maneuvers you would possibly make with a airplane typically have the alternative impact in orbit.
To see what I imply, we’ll first simply seize some fundamental physics and construct ourselves somewhat mannequin of orbital mechanics, after which I’ve some cool simulations of an tried docking maneuver. Learn on!
Round Orbits
Think about flying in a round orbit round Earth. There are three huge physics concepts we have to perceive this type of movement. First, centripetal acceleration. Recall that acceleration is a measure of how briskly the rate of an object modifications.
However velocity isn’t simply velocity, it’s velocity in a specific course—in different phrases, it’s a vector. If an object is shifting in a circle, its course is consistently altering, which implies it’s continually accelerating, even when its velocity is fixed!
The course of this acceleration is towards the middle of the circle. (“Centripetal” means center-pointing.) The magnitude of the acceleration is dependent upon each the magnitude of the rate (v), i.e., the velocity, and the radius (r) of the circle. This offers the next equation:
Courtesy of Rhett Allen
