Category Archives: Interplanetary flight
Powering a Starship With a Black Hole

Powering a Starship With a Black Hole Continue reading
Hyperbolic Departure and Approach
Interplanetary flight: 1) Introduction 2) Heliocentric Transfer Orbit 3) The Gauss Problem 4) Determining Orbital Elements 5) Hyperbolic Departure and Approach 6) Gravitational Assist Solving the Gauss problem gives us the heliocentric transfer orbit that takes the spacecraft from the sphere of influence of … Continue reading
Determining Orbital Elements
Interplanetary flight: 1) Introduction 2) Heliocentric Transfer Orbit 3) The Gauss Problem 4) Determining Orbital Elements 5) Hyperbolic Departure and Approach 6) Gravitational Assist Solving the Gauss problem gives us the position and velocity vectors, r and v, of a spacecraft in a heliocentric-ecliptic orbit. From these … Continue reading
Gravitational Assist
Interplanetary flight: 1) Introduction 2) Heliocentric Transfer Orbit 3) The Gauss Problem 4) Determining Orbital Elements 5) Hyperbolic Departure and Approach 6) Gravitational Assist In planning certain types of trajectories of spacecraft within the solar system, engineers rely on a technique called gravitational assist … Continue reading
The Gauss Problem
Interplanetary flight: 1) Introduction 2) Heliocentric Transfer Orbit 3) The Gauss Problem 4) Determining Orbital Elements 5) Hyperbolic Departure and Approach 6) Gravitational Assist On New Year’s Day 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi of Italy observed for the first time an object that turned out to … Continue reading
Heliocentric Transfer Orbit
Interplanetary flight: 1) Introduction 2) Heliocentric Transfer Orbit 3) The Gauss Problem 4) Determining Orbital Elements 5) Hyperbolic Departure and Approach 6) Gravitational Assist For transfers to most of the planets, we may initially consider that the planetary orbits are both circular and coplanar. … Continue reading
Interplanetary Flight – Introduction
Interplanetary flight: 1) Introduction 2) Heliocentric Transfer Orbit 3) The Gauss Problem 4) Determining Orbital Elements 5) Hyperbolic Departure and Approach 6) Gravitational Assist An interplanetary spacecraft spends most of its flight time moving under the gravitational influence of a single body – the … Continue reading