General Question Numbers to put my craft around Saturn?

[richfororbit]

Hi there,

Could someone please give me the exact numbers to place me in orbit around saturn at about 190KM above the surface.

 

[insanity]

Does 15 work? I find it to be a perfectly good number for things, so it may work for you.

You might want to ask a more specific question and, perhaps, a good tutorial to begin with (I suggest Go Play in Space)

 

[richfororbit]

Fifteen, uh, fifteen for what? In the vector setting.

 

[boogabooga]

Fifteen, uh, fifteen for what? In the vector setting.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm"]Sarcasm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

You want to work with orbital elements.

I assume you mean an orbit with an altitude of 190k km, which is 190 000 km or 190Mm?

(An orbit around Saturn at 190 km altitude will decay in a matter of minutes)

Set the semi-major axis to 250 000 km. (190Mm + ~60Mm [Radius of Saturn])

Then set the eccentricity to 0 for a circular orbit.

Inclination, longitude of ascending node, longitude of periapsis, and mean anomaly at epoch are arbitrary if all you care about is altitude. Set all of these to 0.

Depending on your reference, this will give you either an orbit in the ecliptic plane (ref ecliptic) or, as I suspect you want, an orbit around the equator in plane with the rings (ref. equator).

 

[richfororbit]

I have managed to get it around, the crafts are orbiting so slowly. But that is obviously due to the altitude being 4,000m. The radiation levels are certainly knocking the Astronaut into the twilight zone if not even worst than that. That constellation module wouldn't stand a chance!

 

[boogabooga]

Alright then.

 

[richfororbit]

I can't type this enough, Earth and Mars are much more impressive to orbit than saturn. I thought it would be better. And why would the spacecrafts have headed straight into the planet's atmosphere compared to orbiting the Earth at 113 miles?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

And why would the spacecrafts have headed straight into the planet's atmosphere compared to orbiting the Earth at 113 miles?

I'm afraid I don't understand the question... :shrug:

 

[jangofett287]

At 113 Miles (~182 Km) you're well above Earth's atmosphere, but at 182 Km above the 'surface' of Jupiter, your well inside it, and the extreme drag that low down in Jupiter's atmosphere would cause you to loose speed quite quickly.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

AH, I get it now, maybe. Wrong numbers entered equaled an altitude above Saturn that was too low?

Maybe start out landed on Mimas or Rhea? Airless body with little G's to escape from. Then get where/whatever altitude you want and examine those numbers.

 

[RonDVouz]

Hi there,

Could someone please give me the exact numbers to place me in orbit around saturn at about 190KM above the surface.

The answer is 42. :thumbup:


Naw, really I suggest downloading the interplanetary MFD. And READ that manual, it's kind of complicated but I feel it's 10% less complicated than TransX.

 

[richfororbit]

Trans x is for travelling to another place in the solar system. I haven't even left the ground just yet:rofl:

In truth low orbit around the Earth.

 

[RonDVouz]

Seriously?

Well you'd better get moving then, launch windows wait for no one.