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ElWanderer / kOS_scripts

kOS scripts and libraries
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Combined inclination and orbit change #127

Open ElWanderer opened 7 years ago

ElWanderer commented 7 years ago

Currently, to launch a satellite into a specific orbit, we adjust the apoapsis, periapsis and then perform an inclination change. The inclination change does not change the magnitude of the velocity, only its direction.

If instead, we were to match orbital altitude at a node with one burn, we could then perform the inclination change and insertion into the final orbit in a single, combined burn. To do this we would need to calculate the desired final velocity.

This would be quicker (useful for slow orbits e.g. those around the Sun) and may be more efficient (as combining burns tends to save delta-v) though it depends on the circumstances.

ElWanderer commented 7 years ago

Have got this working nicely as part of a solar satellite launcher (issue #126) but I seem to be having trouble breaking the code down into smaller functions so as to be able to handle orbit matching generally.