Abstract
Endeavouring spacefarers that have read the previous chapter carefully, possess some mechanical skills and a suitable workshop, might now have their own spacecraft available or underway. So it is high time to learn something about steering, trajectory planning and navigation in space! Flying a spaceship is not much more complicated than steering a car or a ship—it is just determined by different environmental conditions and physical laws that have to be understood first.
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Notes
- 1.
The second law is never really applied in this book, but it was historically important for the derivation of the third law.
- 2.
The only ever flight from one spacestation to another, where Soyuz T-15 flew from Mir to Salyut 7 and back, did not require a plane change since both stations were intentionally placed into the same orbit.
- 3.
This could also be called a braking manoeuvre of some sort, even though it would be a rather uncomfortable way of slowing down.
References
Aldrin, E. E. (1963). Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. https://doi.org/1721.1/12652
Hohmann, W. (1925). Die Erreichbarkeit der Himmelskrper. Mnchen: Verlag Oldenbourg. ISBN 978-3-486-23106-5.
Hohmann, W. (1960). The attainability of heavenly bodies. NASA Technical Translation F-44, Washington, DC.
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Ganse, B., Ganse, U. (2020). How to Fly a Spacecraft. In: The Spacefarer's Handbook. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-61702-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-61702-1_3
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