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      Gravity

      Kepler's Laws

      Orbital Elements

      Types of Orbits

      Orbit Transfers

      Going to the Moon

    Technology

When studying orbits or planets or any other satellite in space, the principle force responsible for the movement of these satellites is called Gravity. Galileo was one of the first physicists to make valid statements about the theory of gravity, but Sir Isaac Newton is responsible for the basic gravity theory that we have today.

Kepler also formulated 3 basic statements about the earth sun system. They can be extended to any two body system in space.

Today we have 6 basic quantities that we use describe any orbit in space. They are called the orbital elements. These quantities are a simpler alternative to the Cartesian system, much like spherical coordinates are a simpler alternative to Cartesian coordinates when you are dealing with spheres.

This is an animation showing how it is possible to achieve orbit by launching an object at a high horizontal velocity.

Now that we can quantify the orbits with the orbital elements, we developed different categories or types of orbits to qualify the various orbits. If it much more convenient to say "a circular orbit" then "an orbit with eccentricity of 0".

When a craft is in a certain orbit, it is important to be able to move around, or change from one orbit to another. There exist many different types of orbit transfers; this website explains the main ones.

This website also includes a list of the basic steps involved with going to the moon.