Explain how to calculate the aphelion and perihelion of a planet in our solar system given the length of its semimajor axis (in AU), period (in years), and eccentricity. Illustrate (walk-through) this steps using the the planet Mercury as an example: semi ...
For example, a circle has an eccentricity of zero, not very elliptical. A relationship can be stated mathematically between the semi-major axis a, the semi-minor axis b and the eccentricity e where: Above are four ellipses with varying eccentricities. The first is a circle. Ecliptic: As...
this method has not been used to quantify the contributions of drag in aerocapture and aerobraking. For this reason, the planet Mars is selected to apply this method
Finally, I took the total orbital period, and divided that by the number returned from the previous step. This gives a number in seconds that looks reasonable, and returns correct values when the eccentricity is very close to 0. But, I'm only about 99.99% sure it's correct. Can anybody...