Basic orbit maneuvers

From OrbiterWiki

Contents 1 Understanding Kepler's laws 2 Raising/lowering periapsis 3 Raising/lowering apoapsis 4 Transfer maneuvers 4.1 Hohmann transfer 4.2 Bi-elliptic transfer 4.3 Accelerated transfer 5 Plane changes 6 Deorbit

[edit] Understanding Kepler's laws

Kepler defined his laws before Newton found out how gravity causes these laws, so it is a nice set of rules of thumb for spaceflight.

1. The first law defines what a orbit in Keplers eyes is: An ellipse (or circle) with the central body in the focal point of it.
2. The second law describes the change in velocity with changing distance to a planet. The further you go away from the planet, the slower you get on the same orbit. It comes from the law of conservation of angular momentum.
3. The third and last law defined the changes in Orbit period.

[edit] Raising/lowering periapsis

[edit] Raising/lowering apoapsis

[edit] Transfer maneuvers

[edit] Hohmann transfer

[edit] Bi-elliptic transfer

[edit] Accelerated transfer

[edit] Plane changes

[edit] Deorbit