Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

An Earth orbit has a semi-major axis a of 23, 500 km, and an eccentricity e of 0

ID: 2078884 • Letter: A

Question

An Earth orbit has a semi-major axis a of 23, 500 km, and an eccentricity e of 0.65. The time of periapsis passage T_0 is 0 sec. If you find you need to iterate for this problem, use an initial guess equal to the mean anomaly M, and only check that the absolute tolerance meets the condition Delta_A = 10^-3 (i.e. there is no need to also check a relative tolerance Delta_R). a. Find the value of the eccentric anomaly E at time t = 19, 760 sec. b. At a different future time, the eccentric anomaly E is 5.75 rad. Calculate the position and velocity vectors in perifocal coordinates at this different future time.

Explanation / Answer

A) a = 23500 km

e = 0.65

time of periapsis passage = 0

mean anamoly M =n(t-tp)

µ=a3n2

at t = 19760 sec, M= 0.67556 { since, µ=3.986 x 1014}

by iterative method, eccentric anamoly is

E1=M + e sin M = 0.68322

E2=M + e sin E1 = 0.68331

E3=M + e sin E2 = 0.68331

When E2= E3 iteration can be stopped

Therefore E = 0.68331

B) position vectors

x= a (cos E-e) = 8160.760

y=a sqrt(1-e2) sin E = 1789.203

= x + y = 8106.760 + 1789.760

velocity components are

V = x + y

R = a(1-e cos E) = 8301.855

= an/r

  = 9.675*10-6

x = -0.0227

y = 0.1719

V = -0.0227 + 0.1719