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Exercise Set 2

The document is an exercise set focused on spaceflight mechanics, covering various problems related to orbital dynamics, including calculations of true anomaly, radius, velocity components, and orbital elements for different scenarios. It includes tasks for both Earth orbits and ballistic missile trajectories, requiring the application of Kepler's laws and orbital mechanics principles. The exercises aim to reinforce understanding of concepts such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and time of flight in orbital mechanics.

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31 views2 pages

Exercise Set 2

The document is an exercise set focused on spaceflight mechanics, covering various problems related to orbital dynamics, including calculations of true anomaly, radius, velocity components, and orbital elements for different scenarios. It includes tasks for both Earth orbits and ballistic missile trajectories, requiring the application of Kepler's laws and orbital mechanics principles. The exercises aim to reinforce understanding of concepts such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and time of flight in orbital mechanics.

Uploaded by

brohanzala40
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Spaceflight Mechanics

Exercise set 2

1. A spacecraft is placed on an Earth orbit with semimajor axis equal to 4 RE and perigee

radius equal to 1.5 RE (where RE denotes the Earth radius).

a. Obtain the true anomaly 4 hours after the perigee pass.

b. Calculate the corresponding radius r and the two velocity components (radial and

horizontal).

Constants. RE  6378.136 km ; E  398600.4 km3 sec2 (Earth gravitational parameter)

2. An Earth orbit has perigee and apogee radii , rP e rA , and initial mean anomaly M 0 equal to

rP  RE  400 km, rA  RE  20000 km, M 0  30 deg

a. Obtain the semimajor axis a, the eccentricity e, the semilatus rectum (parameter) p,

the magnitude of the (specific) angular momentum h, and the (specific) energy  ;

b. Plot the time histories of the radius r  t  , velocity magnitude v  t  , and the two

components vr  t  e v  t  in an orbital period;

c. Interpret the time histories of r  t  e v  t  according to the 2nd Kepler’s law

d. Calculate the maximum value of the flight path angle and the true anomaly at which

it occurs.

3. A ballistic missile is launched from the Earth surface with an initial velocity of 7.2 km/sec.

It impacts the surface 10000 km far away from the launch site. The Earth atmosphere and

other perturbations are neglected.

a. Prove that two ballistic arcs exist, associated with two different orbit eccentricities.

b. Calculate semimajor axis and eccentricity in these two cases.

c. Calculate the maximum altitude for both cases.


d. Calculate the time of flight in both cases.

e. Obtain the flight path angle at launch in both cases.

4. For an elliptic orbit (with arbitrary values of the semimajor axis and eccentricity)
a. obtain the time needed to travel from the periapse to the point where the orbit crosses the
semiminor axis;
b. check if the result is correct in the special case corresponding to e  0
5. At a given time t0 the dynamic state of an orbiting satellite corresponds to the following

values of radius r, absolute longitude a , latitude  , flight path angle  , velocity v, and

heading angle  :

r  t0   RE  5000 km a  t0   110 deg   t0   20 deg


  t0   30 deg v  t0   7.2 km sec   t0   150 deg

a. Obtain the five constant orbit elements a, e, i,  , and  .

b. Calculate the true anomaly at t0 , *  t0  , and the corresponding eccentric anomaly E0

and mean anomaly M 0 .

c. Calculate the three Cartesian components of the position vector and the velocity vector.

6. At a given time t0 the dynamic state of an orbiting satellite is associated with the following

Cartesian components of the position and velocity vectors:

X  t0   7000 km Y  t0   7000 km Z  t0   800 km


Vx  t0   4.1 km sec Vy  t0   4.6 km sec Vz  t0   0.6 km sec

a. Obtain the five constant orbit elements a, e, i,  , and  .

b. Calculate the true anomaly at t0 , *  t0  , and the corresponding eccentric anomaly E0

and mean anomaly M 0 .

c. Calculate the values of radius r, absolute longitude a , latitude  , flight path angle  ,

velocity v, and heading angle  at t0 .

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