Docking / rendezvous

If the force between them is greater, a greater acceleration will occur. The greater the acceleration, the greater the change in velocity – this causes the object to move faster. This means that objects in small orbits travel faster than objects in large orbits.

In spaceflight, an orbital maneuver (otherwise known as a burn) is the use of propulsion systems to change the orbit of a spacecraft. The rest of the flight, especially in a transfer orbit, is called coasting.

1. Go to the map view and use the maneuver tool.
2. Begin by matching your orbital inclination as described above.
3. Bring one point on your orbit (ideally an apsis) tangent to the target orbit.
4. At the point of nearest encounter maneuver to make:
5. On reaching that encounter, burn to match velocity.

Drag the node around until there’s a meeting. If there is no meeting, right click on the node, then click +1 orbit and do 2 again, if there is a meeting go to the next step. Using kerbal alarm clock, go to the tracking station and warp until the manoeuvre. Match speeds at the meeting.

The Soviet’s first successful crewed docking occurred on January 16, 1969 when Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 docked and exchanged two crew members. The first rendezvous of two spacecraft from different countries took place in 1975, when an Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Apollo–Soyuz mission.

Here’s the equations I use, instead of downloading Kerbal Engineer.

1. deltaV = Isp * 9.8 * ln(m_full / m_empty)
2. m_fuel = m_empty(e deltaV / Isp / 9.8 – 1) note that the “- 1” is not part of the the exponent of e.
3. 2 <= TWR = T / m / g <= 2.5.

When used for traveling between celestial bodies, a Hohmann transfer orbit requires that the starting and destination points be at particular locations in their orbits relative to each other. Space missions using a Hohmann transfer must wait for this required alignment to occur, which opens a so-called launch window.

Kinetic and potential energy of atoms result from the motion of electrons. When electrons are excited they move to a higher energy orbital farther away from the atom. The further the orbital is from the nucleus, the higher the potential energy of an electron at that energy level.

Star Wars would have you believe that the greatest challenges to space travel is asteroids, lack of resources like water or fuel, or even the threat of unfriendly, intelligent alien life.