I’m so happy I found this video to keep me busy today. Nothing wrong with nerding out with some orbital mechanics here and there. Keep up the great work. I love learning this type of stuff!

@csvaughen

3 жыл бұрын

Yep!! Glad you like it!

Brilliant explanation with detailed and realistic examples. As a freshman aerospace engineering student, this was a great lecture answering the questions I had about azimuth, inclination and latitude. One of the best I've seen so far. Thank you...

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

thank you so much for your comment! I'm happy to hear!

Beautiful job explaining. I wish the channel was ongoing with more orbital mechanics.

What an incredible video, your way of teaching while you’re showing graphically what you’re explaining is simply awesome, I’d never thought I could understand at least the basics of the orbits, thank you so much for taking the time of doing this!

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!! So great to see this positive feedback - I'm so glad you found the video useful!

Wow this is the best video. lets give him an great appreciation for this intituive video n by having said that, the twist in the plot is that im civil engineering 😀😀

thank you so much for the explanation as well as for the Geogebra files!

Hey Man, Your work is incredible in the field of orbital science. I am learning a lot from it. Thank you for sharing and we want you to share more such kinds of stuff to help in the future. Again Thank you and appreciate your hard work to make it happened.

You are a amazing teacher! Your website is so awesome.

This was a great lesson, so thanks for that. I have a question, and I was wondering whether you can help me or perhaps point me to some other work where I can find the answer. If you launch from KSC with an azimuth of 72 degrees, heading for a moon mission, but decide soon after flight to perform an inclination change and head for the ISS instead, how does that azimuth affect the equations for the inclination change over the equatorial burn? I've done all the calculations and I don't recall seeing the azimuth factor in any of them, but it seems logical that it would change the values since the spacecraft is heading towards a much more closer orbit to that of the ISS, than the 90 degrees azimuth one...

@csvaughen

3 жыл бұрын

thanks, glad you found it interesting, my first reaction to your question is, once you are in orbit, you certainly can't go back and change your launch azimuth, and any inclination change is only going to depend on your current speed and the required change in angle of inclination... you can't go back and change the launch azimuth or launch site latitude, those simply aren't variables you can change, so are not factors in any making adjustments.

@alexispapageorgiou72

3 жыл бұрын

@@csvaughen Hm ... Thanks. Interesting, cause I was studying the external-preview.redd.it/WW_7HL9WJSUJUfV7EQXRV6IGwzgH2IbT14OXEN-gx3o.jpg?auto=webp&s=c129aeca5b7a0a3c275c9b99228d72b3d76b531b Apollo 11 full orbit chart, and my mind is tricked by the 72 azimuth orbit. I just think that it'll be easier to match with an inclination change at the equator the 51.8 ISS orbit, if you're on a 72 azimuth trajectory than a 90. I guess I'm wrong then.

@csvaughen

3 жыл бұрын

@@alexispapageorgiou72 That's a fascinating image, thanks for sharing. I'd seen it before but never looked very closely until now. I really don't know how to read that chart but now I want to learn more about it.

@alexispapageorgiou72

3 жыл бұрын

@@csvaughen You simply posted the lesson then, cause I thought you a professor or aficionado on the matter? Scott was it, a relative?

@csvaughen

3 жыл бұрын

@@alexispapageorgiou72 Sorry, actually my full name is Christopher Scott Vaughen, I'm a community college math professor, but not an expect on all topics of rocket science. I do know the math involved and can say I'm an expert on that, and the math here is correct. But this is just beginner level for real rocket science.

So I've been playing around with the Silverbird launch calculator and calculated what the SpaceX Starship could be capable of if they launched from each latitude (in 10deg increments) and the results say that a polar launch from the equator more or less has the same payload capacity as a polar launch from the poles/high latitude sites... Is this correct? (I only ask because my intuition tells me with less rotational velocity at higher latitudes, then you'd expect less performance penalty and thus a higher payload to the poles at higher latitudes)

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

First: I'm not sure, second: thanks for the mention of that calculator, I'll definitely look for that, sounds interesting, third: maybe the answer is this: launching to polar orbit, payload can be same at higher or lower latitude because you simply aren't getting a boost from Earth's rotation at either starting point (higher or lower latitudes), in other words, if you fly more or less north or south to reach the polar orbit, it won't matter how north or south you start, there is no impact or benefit from Earth's rotation.

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

GOSH!! I wish I knew about this website BEFORE recording a 1hr 24 minute video on optimal rocket staging!!! GRRRR - that calculator is FASCINATING... thank you for the reference!!!!

@OzearEimaj

2 жыл бұрын

@@csvaughen So after talking through it with some people, I think it's because even if launching into a polar orbit from the equator, that's still only 450m/s rotational velocity perpendicular to your final ~7800m/s orbital velocity, so this works out to ~13m/s difference in the resultant vector. On Silverbird, it's pretty great!

I arrived without the basics of orbital mechanics and didn't understand the early graphics in the first 3 mins.. I need to start with the 2D perspectives before showing 3D ones. Thanks anyway. I'll be back when I have understood the basics.

@csvaughen

3 жыл бұрын

this one is pretty good: kzread.info/dash/bejne/gpV-yJlqoMa7kc4.html

Here's an interesting problem: where to launch the Starlink Gen2 Shell 8 from? The 148° inclination is a tricky beast. Israel launches into 143° (out of necessity) but I'm thinking SpaceX may need to haul Starlink stacks to Sea platforms on the West Coast and the latitude must be between 40° North/South other wise the system will struggle to get any meaningful payload to orbit.

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

Do they have any need for 148 degrees inclination?

@OzearEimaj

2 жыл бұрын

@@csvaughen I have no clue why they'd need it, but it's there in the Gen2 proposal!

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

@@OzearEimaj yeah that is weird, I don't get it: why ? isn't 180-148=32 degrees the same thing just going the other way (and with benefit of Earth's rotation as initial speed)?

@OzearEimaj

2 жыл бұрын

@@csvaughen Indeed it's 32° retrograde! I've seen some suggestions that it's to allow for better coverage somehow? Something to do with RAAN drift in different inclinations, so that retrograde-orbiting Starlinks with lasers can act as relays that rotate *with* the Earth? edit: not rotate with, but RAAN drift is in the same direction as the rotation of the Earth

@csvaughen

2 жыл бұрын

@@OzearEimaj ok, so this is a question for Scott Manley!

20:53 you're confused about the difference because you have assumed not only a spherical earth like you mention, but also one that is not rotating. If you correct for those, especially the rotation, you'll get the correct azimuth.

@csvaughen

Жыл бұрын

yes - thank you! I did think about .. after recording... that completely makes sense