Re: [Phys-l] Rocket Science

[Peter Schoch <pschoch@nac.net>]

You can't rendezvous this way.  It was proven by one of the  
astronauts early on in the Gemini program.  His fighter pilot  
training said to accelerate and you'll catch up to the other craft,  
but he just got farther away.

Remember you are on a conic section, and adding a delta V will just  
put you into a different orbit -- a Hohmann transfer.  A rendezvous  
is a more complicated maneuver.  I suggest the book "Understanding  
Space" by Jerry Jon Sellers to understand the problem and to work out  
the solution.

Peter Schoch


On Jul 25, 2006, at 5:50 PM, John Denker wrote:

> Hi --
>
> A classic question:
>
> Here's the scenario:  Spacecraft #1 is launched into a nice, circular,
> low-earth orbit.  Shortly thereafter, spacecraft #2 is launched into
> the _same_ orbit.  At this point in the story, spacecraft #2 is  
> keeping
> pace with #1, and is simply 90 km in trail.
>
> The flight plan calls for the two craft to rendezvous.  At time t,
> spacecraft #2 fires its thruster, thereby giving itself a delta v
> of 60 km/h, directed toward spacecraft #1 in the obvious way.
>
> Here's the question:  Within a km or so, how far apart are the
> spacecraft at time t + 90 minutes?
>
>
>
> Vis vobiscum.
>
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