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Questions tagged [orbital-mechanics]

Objects revolving around each other. Most commonly 3D objects under the (mutual) influence of gravitational pull.

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How to predict encounters between a ship and a body's sphere of influence in 2D

Long time listener, first time caller. I'm making a little hobby game in XNA, its about transport ships in space, analogous to container ships at sea. I need to be able to predict the encounter between a Ship and a planet/moons gravitational sphere…
pagnatious
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Is it possible to make realistic n-body solar system simulation in matter of size and mass?

Important note: this question has utterly no relation to "PhysX", which is a computer-game-physics system (useful for the physics in arcade games such as ball games, etc); PhysX is a system built-in to Unity3D and other game engines; PhysX is…
OldBerkay
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ThreeJS orbit controls set target without lookAt

I am trying to make a 3D viewer for building models. We have the model loaded and are trying to make some sort of interaction with the model. Therefor we are using OrbiControls for rotating, panning and zooming the model. We want to have the…
Wouter Coebergh
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Errors while solving ODE's python

I have a university project in which we are asked to simulate a satellite approach to Mars using ODE's and SciPy's odeint function. I manage to simulate it in 2D by making a second-order ODE into two first-order ODE's. However I am stuck in the…
user1937000
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Plotting elliptical orbits

I'm trying to write a code that plots the elliptical paths of an object using the equation for the ellipse r=a(1-e^2)/(1+e*cos(theta)). I'd also like this data to be put into an array for other use. from numpy import *#Imports Python mathematical…
maelstromscientist
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Rotate around an object to its direction of velocity

(For Unity 5.3.5f1) Right now I am working on a 3D camera that is orbiting horizontally around the player. The player is a RigidBody rolling sphere. The player can freely rotate the axis horizontally but when there is no input I want the rotation to…
will rabbermann
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How to find planet in resonance

I'm trying to find a method to detect from orbital parameters (period, eccentricity, semi-major axis...) planets that are in resonance. I know that if the ratio between two planets is commensurable, this means that they are in resonance, but suppose…
Panichi Pattumeros PapaCastoro
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Velocity verlet algorithm - energy increasing for n-body problem

The problem I implemented velocity verlet algorithm to compute trajectories of 2 bodies interacting with each other gravitationally (newtonian gravity only). Orbiting smaller body has a very small mass, body that is in the center of the orbit has a…
Bill2462
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Python implementation of n-body problem issue

I am currently trying to implement the N-body problem using Euler's method for solving differential equations. However, the graphical outputs do not seem correct, and I'm not sure where the issue in my code is after a while of testing. I'm currently…
2abysses
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Create a "tail" for an object that is orbiting

Edit Here is a JSFiddle with the code for the "tail" function commenting out.Solar System JSFiddle I have this object I am working on that has an object orbiting a center mass. That works perfectly. I am now trying to add a trailing line or "tail"…
Alexander McComb
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Simulating the orbits of the Earth, Moon and Sun together in Fortran

This has been racking my brain for hours now. I will try to explain as much as I can. I'm aware this code is horrendously ungraceful, but I'm new to Fortran and making things more efficient is not easy for me. I am trying to simulate the celestial…
genjong
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Orbital equations, and power required to run them

Due to a discussion on the SO IRC today, I'm curious about orbital mechanics, and The equations needed to solve orbital problems The computing power required to solve complex problems The question in particular is calculating when the Earth will…
Adam Davis
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Computing Earth orbit position and rotations

I want to compute the Earth position (relative to the sun) and axis rotations for a given date and time. It's ok to assume the Sun is stationary at the 0,0,0 coordinate. Very minor deflections, due to the Moons gravitational pull for example, can…
David Rutten
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Satellite position computation using Runge-Kutta 4

my issue is related to Runge-Kutta 4 (RK4) method and the correct iteration steps required for the state vector of an orbiting satellite. The below code (in Python) describes the motion based on the description as per this link…
pymat
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Earth pulling Sun in 2d Physics Engine

I'm creating a basic physics engine in python and I've managed to create a simple "planet" class to handle the maths. I've also created a basic working scenario when a small planet orbits a larger one - if the small planet has zero mass. However,…
Ishmaliboo
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