Question

Consider a 200 kg spacecraft orbiting the Earth. The vehicle’s position at a given time (lets call it time zero), relative to a non-rotating reference frame with origin at Earth’s centre, is r = −5310i + 5040j km. Its velocity vector at time zero is v = −4.85i − 6.37j km/s.

1. Calculate the distance from Earth’s centre to the spacecraft, the speed of the spacecraft, and the specific angular momentum (magnitude and direction) relative to Earth’s centre at time zero.

2. Calculate the length of the orbit’s semi-major axis, and the orbital period, τ.

3. Calculate the orbit’s eccentricity, the altitude of the space craft at its point of closest approach, and the angle of the space craft from periapsis at time zero.

Answer 1