Orbital Mechanics

[alex_greene]

Just spotted this page here. I thought it might be of interest to some of you.

 

[Hopeless]

Thanks for the link will be worth double checking next time I get to run Traveller!

 

[GypsyComet]

Useful, but a lot of the complex transits NASA works up are pointless when you have continuous 1g+ available for free.

 

[F33D]

Useful, but a lot of the complex transits NASA works up are pointless when you have continuous 1g+ available for free.

True, but it's a good resource for other Trav stuff like setting up space station orbits & the like.

 

[GypsyComet]

Useful, but a lot of the complex transits NASA works up are pointless when you have continuous 1g+ available for free.

True, but it's a good resource for other Trav stuff like setting up space station orbits & the like.

When common orbital utility vehicles also have 4 to 6g continuous available and the only things actually afraid of the gravity well are rescue cases, orbital details are momentary color at best.

The low tech types, including the 2300AD players, will get more use out of this than the Charted Space folks.

 

[alex_greene]

Useful, but a lot of the complex transits NASA works up are pointless when you have continuous 1g+ available for free.

You could use these orbital mechanics to describe the courses and orbits of unpowered hulks, asteroids, comets, debris from space battles, missiles which have run out of fuel, satellites and a variety of other objects which the characters' vessels could encounter.

The characters' own ship need not accelerate at a constant 1g all the time, either. It could Jump in, make some course adjustments and then shut off the engines, letting the planet's gravity capture it in a stable orbit and using thrusters to maintain the stability of its trajectory.

 

[F33D]

When common orbital utility vehicles also have 4 to 6g continuous available

I'm not referring vehicles.

 

[GypsyComet]

When common orbital utility vehicles also have 4 to 6g continuous available

I'm not referring vehicles.

Orbits of stations are basically addresses around a world. They are moving relative to each other and anyone incoming or outgoing, but those velocities are basically a snail's pace to any vessel in the milieu. Someone else, or even the planet, in the way is a matter of momentary correction with the drives available. We only fret over it in the real world because fuel availability is a concern and the gravity well is still pretty scary. Neither of those things is an issue to ten thousand years of anti-gravity, fusion plants, and fuelless thrusters rated in multiple full Gs.

Converging orbits of dead stick bodies is a plot point that you either can deal with or not. Real rocket science need play no role in it.

 

[F33D]

We only fret over it in the real world because fuel availability is a concern and the gravity well is still pretty scary.

I'm not talking about "fretting" over anything. I'm talking about being able to set up orbits for items in Trav that would use them.