From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Wed Mar 07 2001 - 23:31:31 MST
Anders Sandberg wrote:
> While a Hohman orbit might be suitable for the
> first ship to the asteroid, later trips would be able to employ more
> thrust as asteroid water becomes available as propellant. Is there any
> software around which solves Lambert's problem, does patched conics or
> otherwise could help calculating deltav and travel times?
Get STK, satellite tool kit. Its an affordable piece of software
and pretty straightforward to use. Better yet, the equations
themselves are not that complicated if you want to set up a
spreadsheet. Do it piecewise in excel, which you already have.
Two comments regarding use of propellants: Robert makes
a very strong case that we will not want to waste anything
that is already out of a gravitational well. Secondly, anything
other than a Hohman orbit is wasteful. Of course, if it is
just for a roleplaying game... {8-] spike
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