General Question Setup to Allow Natural Orbit Degredation

[Spike Spiegel]

I notice that Orbiter has "Orbit stabilisation parameters". Does this mean that under high time acceleration, Orbits don't degrade naturally?

I want to put a vessel into a certain orbit and see how that orbit degrades over a very long period of time, as realistically as possible. Is Orbiter's default configuration good for that? If not, how should I set it up?

 

[communist]

ask martin

 

[Izack]

ask martin

That was super-helpful.

Unfortunately, I cannot help either. I haven't come across anything in the documentation on it. :shrug:

On second thought, Communist is right. :yes:

 

[communist]

neither have i

 

[SlashJr]

I just set up a 4,000x10,000km orbit a few hours ago and it became more and more elliptical over the course of a year or so until the orbiter was slung out of Earth orbit into solar orbit.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

I started with the built-in scenario of the Delta-Glider in a sun-synchronous orbit and boosted it up to the altitude of what might normally be a geostationary orbit, with 0.0001 Ecc. So that's like a non-geostationary polar orbit? Then I accelerated time while we went out to eat. I came back and it was 10 years later, with about 0.0005 Ecc.

I just want to know if that's a decent representation of reality, or if Orbiter is compensating and making sure I don't fall out of orbit. Basically, is it reasonable to assume that things at that altitude can stay in orbit for extremely long periods of time without reboosting?

 

[jarmonik]

I notice that Orbiter has "Orbit stabilisation parameters". Does this mean that under high time acceleration, Orbits don't degrade naturally?

Your assumption is correct. Orbit stabilization was implemented from the first place because orbits did degrade due to errors in dynamic integration. You can disable the stabilization from the "Extra" tab of the launchpad.

 

[RisingFury]

Your assumption is correct. Orbit stabilization was implemented from the first place because orbits did degrade due to errors in dynamic integration. You can disable the stabilization from the "Extra" tab of the launchpad.

That won't make the orbit degrade due to drag and perturbations, but due to integration errors...

 

[jarmonik]

I started with the built-in scenario of the Delta-Glider in a sun-synchronous orbit and boosted it up to the altitude of what might normally be a geostationary orbit, with 0.0001 Ecc. So that's like a non-geostationary polar orbit? Then I accelerated time while we went out to eat. I came back and it was 10 years later, with about 0.0005 Ecc.

The Moon has a significant effect in all orbits around the Earth and the gravity field of the Earth isn't perfectly spherical, therefore, it will have a major effect in LEO.

I just want to know if that's a decent representation of reality

Can't be absolutely sure but the Orbiter is pretty accurate therefore it should be very good representation of reality.

---------- Post added at 22:05 ---------- Previous post was at 21:49 ----------

That won't make the orbit degrade due to drag and perturbations, but due to integration errors...

Unfortunately, that is true. There should be some kind of higlhy reliable model in which the Orbiter could be compared. That could help to study the problem of orbit degrade but such a software aren't easily available.