Recent content by TheHarvesteR

Thanks Ken. I actually have this working here already. I followed a paper by Hoots from 1984 (to some extent), and wrote a few algorithms of my own to find the solutions. Basically what it does is first rule out orbits that won't intersect, first by simple criteria, like periapsis and apoapsis...

Thanks, but at the moment, there is very little to work with here... I have the single-orbit code already working, so we can abstract that bit away and work with what we already know to be osculating orbits... But as far as actually calculating patched conics and all that, all I have right now...

A regula falsi approach is what I had in mind really. Although I had been planning on doing it on the current main body frame, and treating entering a "child" SOI as a separate case than leaving your current one for the SOI of the "parent" body in the system. It should be possible I think...

Well, yes, because the simulation is restricted to two-body systems, we can get the position of just about anything as a function of time, so that bit is taken care of. The problem here is that I can't think of a way to properly find the true point of intersection... I suppose one way of...

Hi, I've got a problem here, that I'd like to discuss before trying to implement any sort of solution. Basically I've got a planetarium simulation, in which I'd like to plot a patched conic trajectory ahead of a spacecraft . The planetarium only simulates two-body gravity, and switches...

Hi again. Just wanted to follow up. I changed the dominant body detection method to a recursive sphere of influence detection scheme here, and it works ok. However, the problems I was having with reference frame oscillation (the ship would go in and out of a moon's orbit, for instance, and...

I'm not using direct numerical integration here... well, not all the time. On high time-compression rates, I disable the numerical integration, and put everything into a propagated orbit. That keeps things stable and predictable, which is more important than accuracy here. That's why I need to...

Hi, I have a question/doubt/general-lack-of-understanding here: I have a simulated solar system here, with simplified orbital mechanics. The main simplification is that at anyone time, only one celestial body exerts gravitational forces on the spaceship. So, my problem is: What would be the...

Worked perfect! So simple and elegant! Thanks a million! Cheers

This just might work :) I already have functions set up to get a position given a true anomaly angle, so if I can find the true anomaly of the nodes, I pretty much aready have their positions. I'll give this a try now. I'll let you know how this goes. Thanks! (BTW, I'm loving these...

Hi again. I'm trying to determine the position of an orbit's ascending and descending nodes here. I already have the Longitude of the ascending node, and a unit vector that points to it, so what I now need is a way to find out the actual distance of the node from the central body. More...

Thanks, those did help! I found the equations I was looking for. Now my system is able to track and propagate hyperbolic orbits :) Cheers!

Ok, I found the alternate equations I was looking for I think. The system is now able to propagate a hyperbolic trajectory, but currently it cannot correctly track some parameters of such an orbit. When tracking, basically all operations are done in reverse... Instead of getting a true...

Hi, first post here at PF :) I have a problem here regarding orbit propagation. Basically my situation is as follows: I have coded a system that can track the orbital parameters from an object in a simulated orbit (Basic rigidbody physics). The system takes the state vectors of the orbiting...