ORBIT THEORY AND APPLICATIONSFOREWARD Enclosed are the notes used in the General Electric System integration Program Department (SIPD) course on orbit theory and on practical applications of orbit theory. Customer funding supported some of the development of the course, GE provided some, to which the author donated additional fime of his own. The purpose of the course is to provide the engineer with basic understanding of orbit theory as well as provide some practical examples of the use of orbit theory. itis expected that students interested in greater details of orbit analysis, orbit calcu- lations, etc. , willbe motivated to pursue these endeavors on their own, starting with the mathematics and equations given in these notes. The material is presented in the “storyboard” format, with text on the left hand page addressing the figures on the facing right hand page. The course was orgl- nally a vugraph only presentation. The starting point was a set of vugraphs gener- ated by Roger Mcintosh for his customer, circa 1980. Many of his vugraphs remain inthe course, and more have been added. Each vugraph isincluded in the course notes with brief descriptions on the facing page. Thus, these course notes are not intended to stand on their own asa textbook on the subject: rather, the text is more toremind the user of the important points that were made when each vugraph was presented. In the course of generating these notes, valuable aid has been provided by Anthony Kelch, and members of his Orbits Analysis Unit, especially Rich Zimmerman and Anastasios Pelekanos. Critiquing by Russ Schuetz has been helpful in refining the notes, filing the gaps, and clarifying certain points. Judy Hall has provided in- valuable support in generating the rough draft typing of these notes, inthe produc- tion and distribution of the course notebooks and in general, handling administra- tive details that are always a part of this type of undertaking. June 10, 1991 Edward J. Taylor Senior Staff EngineerTABLE OF CONTENTS PART | - ORBIT THEORY SECTION PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION — “THE ELLIPSE”... ‘ 5 2 1.1 WHAT MAKES SATELLITES ORBIT... 220200000005 geocccos 1.2 CONIC MOTION es 5 .8 1.3. THE ELLIPSE peeceeponeqadodccno 2 1.4 SUMMARY OF SECTION 1 pegsdeoceoanpacaoececy 20 2 SATELLITE MOTION IN THE ELLIPSE -"2D ORBITS” «02.2.0. -2+000 24 2.1 MOTION THROUGH THE ORBIT ...-......222200e0e0s : 22 2.2 TIME THROUGH THE ORBIT ........ 30 2.3 SUMMARY OF SECTION 2 a 36 3. THE ORBIT ORIENTATION IN SPACE - “3D ORBITS” ......... eee 3.1. EARTH-SUN RELATIONSHIPS ...... a0) 3.2 INERTIAL REFERENCE COORDINATE SYSTEM ciecseeeneees 2 3.3 THE 3-D ORIENTATION PARAMETERS feo 44 3.4 SUMMARY OF SECTION 3 5 4B 4 SATELLITE MOTION ABOUT THE EARTH ~ “GROUND TRACKS” .. 49 4.1. THE EARTH-CENTERED COORDINATED FRAME 50 4.2 GROUND TRACKS .......... : 52 4.3 SHADOW ECLIPSE pepodeocunceoddccd oo 4.4 SUMMARY OF SECTION 4 feeee se 70 5 ORBIT ADJUST - “AV MANEUVERS” deqdegcoudeccaa ‘i nm 5.1 ROCKET EQUATION .... ee 72 5.2 IN-PLANE MANEUVERS 76 5.3 QUT-OF-PLANE MANEUVERS ..... 84 5.4 SUMMARY OF ORBIT ADJUST MANEUVERS .......-. + 90 6 PERTURBATIONS TO THE SATELLITE ORBIT - “Ip EFFECTS” 5 - 8 6.1 OVERVIEW OF PERTURBATIONS . . rn] 6.2 ORBIT PARAMETER PERTURBATIONS DUE TO EARTH ASYMMETRY - eo 6.3 PERTURBATIONS DUE TO OTHER SOURCES : fevers 108 64 SUMMARY OF SECTION6 ........ : fe 170) 7 TIME RELATIONSHIPS . m 7.1 GMTVSUTCLT.... - on 12 7.2 TYING RAAN, LAN AND TAAN TOGETHER an + 16 7.3. DEFINITIONS OF ORBIT PERIOD . fevtrereee 120 7.4 SUMMARY OF SECTION T 0.2. ..000++5 — eee 122 8 SUMMARY OF SATELLITE ORBITS - “ORBIT OBSERVATIONS” ......... 123 81 SUMMARY ..... 124 82 OBSERVATIONS ON CLOSED (ELLIPTIC) ORBITS 126 83 OBSERVATIONS ABOUT ORBITS-IN-SPACE 128