Orbit

maneuvering

Orbit transfer
Change of orbital plane
Orbit Rendezvous
Orbit maintenance
De-orbit

Type of orbits

Low-altitude Earth orbit

Medium-altitude Earth oribt
High-altitude Earth orbit

Orbit design

The orbit desing process

Orbits during the space mission lifetime
Earth coverage

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Most satellites must change their OE during their lifetime:
Examples:
1. Transfer from initial parking orbit to final orbit
2. Correct orbits from perturbation
3. Intercept a target
4. De-orbit
To change the orbit of a satellite: to change the satellites
velocity vector in magnitude or direction using a thruster
V=Vneed-Vcurrent
The position does not change significantly during
impulsive burns.

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Coplanar orbit transfers
The most common type of orbit maneuvering: change size
and energy of the orbit remaining in the same orbital plane
There exists different transfer
orbits depending of the mission
requirements:
Smallest amount of energy
Minimum transfer time

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit
Walter Hohmann (1880-1945)
german engineer.
Hohmann transfer orbit consists in
a elliptical orbit tangent to both the
initial and final circular orbits at the
transfers orbit perigee and apogee,
respectively.
Velocity vectors are collinear at the
intersecction points
Represents the most fuel-efficient
transfer between two coplanar
circular orbits

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit formulation
V

VA

VB

Vtransf , A VA

VB Vtransf , B

Parking orbit
rA= 6567 km
Geostationary orbit
rB= 42160 km

Orbital velocity of the parking orbit

VA= 7.79 km/s
Orbital velocity of the GO
VB= 3.08 km/s
Semimajor axis of the transfer orbit
aT= 0.5(rA+rB)=24364 km

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit formulation

Transfer velocity at perigee

VTA= 10.25 km/s

Transfer velocity at apogee

VTB= 1.49 km/s

Change velocity at perigee

VA=2.46 km/s

Change velocity at apogee

VB=1.49 km/s

Total velocity change

V=3.95 km/s

Time of transfer, P/2

T=5 hr 15 min

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Hohmann transfer orbit discussion
Hohmann transfer is efficient in energy terms, but not
in transfer time
The time of transfer can be calculated with the 3rd
Keplers law

T flight

3
transf

1/ 2

GM

Paradox: we have increase the velocity in two burns,

but the final velocity is slower than originally

ORBIT MANEUVERING
One-tangent-burn transfer
Sometimes we need to
transfer a satellite in less
time than that required for
a Hohmann transfer
In the one-tangent burn
the transfer orbit is
tangential to the initial
orbit
The
transfer
orbit
intersects the final orbit
with an angle equal to the
flight-path-angle

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Comparison
Comparison of coplanar orbit transfers from LEO to
Geosynchronous orbit
Variable

Hohmann Transfer

One-tangent-burn

rA

6570 km

6570 km

rB

42200 km

42200 km

atx

24385 km

28633 km

3.935 km/s

4.699 km/s

5.256 h

3.457 h

VT
TOF

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Constant low-thrust burn
Another option for changing the size of the orbit is to use
a constant low-thrust burn (ionic engines)
The resulting transfer orbit is a spiral orbit.
We can approximate the velocity change for this type of
orbits by
V VB VA
For the previous example, the total change of velocity
would be 4.71 km/s

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Smart-1

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit plane changes
To change the orbital plane we must change the direction of
the velocity vector

For a simple plane change, the required change in velocity is

V

2 Vi sin

2
Plane changes are very expensive and requires an important
fuel consumption

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit plane changes
An example:
Change in velocity required to transfer from a lowaltitude (h=185 km) inclined (i=28 deg) orbit to an
equatorial orbit (i=0) at the same altitute:
r=6563 km
V=7.79 km/s
V=3.77 km/s
For a i=60 deg, the required change in velocity equals
the current velocity.

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit plane changes

THINK

Describe a 3-burn orbital

change from an
inclined low-altitude
circular orbit to a highaltitude equatorial
circular orbit.

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit Rendezvous
Objective: to rendezvous with or intercept another object in
space, eg:
A probes send to a planet, a comet, an asteroid.
Shuttle send to the ISS
A communication satellite in a geosynchronous orbit

Phasing orbit: Hohmann transfer orbit which the interceptor

must arrive at the rendezvous point at the same time as
the target

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit Rendezvous
is the phase angle needed for
rendezvous
f

is the initial phase angle

k is the number of rendezvous

opportunities
int is

the angular velocity of the

interceptor
is the angular velocity of the
target
tgt

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit Rendezvous
Wait time: the interceptor remains in the initial orbit until
interceptor and target achive the desired geometry for
rendezvous

Twait

2k ) /(

The lead angle is calculated by:

L

And the phase angle

f

The total time

Ttotal

tg

T flight

180

Twait

T flight

int

tgt

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit Rendezvous

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Orbit Maintenance
Eventually we will need to correct the satellite orbital
elements due to perturbing forces.
Two special cases:
1. Satellites with repeating ground tracks
Change in the right ascension of the ascending node
Perigee precession
Atmospheric drag
2. Geosynchronous equatorial satellites placed at an
assigned longitude.
East-west drift: caused by the J22 resonance
North-south drift: Sun, Moon 3-body effect.

ORBIT MANEUVERING
Deorbit
After the mission is complete we must to think what to
do with the satellite
Low-altitude orbits: allow to decay and reenter the
atmosphere
Boost satellites into benign orbits to reduce the
probability of collision
Sometimes the deorbit must be controlled: used for the
recovery of the payload (eg. Manned mission)

TYPE OF ORBITS
Classifications

1 Centric
classifications

Heliocentric orbit
Geocentric orbit

2 Altitude
classifications

Low Earth orbit

Medium Earth orbit
High Earth orbit

3 Inclination
classifications

Polar orbit
Inclined orbit
Equatorial orbit

4 Eccentricity
classifications

Circular orbit
Elliptic orbit
Parabolic orbit
Hyperbolic orbit

5 Synchronous
classifications

Geosynchronous orbit
Geostationary orbit
Semi-syncrhonous orbit
Heliosynchronous

TYPE OF ORBITS
Altitude classification

LEO, Low-altitude
Earth Orbit (1602000 km)

Earth observation satellites

Manned spaceflight
Aid remote sensing satellites

MEO, Mediumaltitude Earth

Orbit

Global positioning (GPS, GLONASS and

Galileo)

HEO, Highaltitute Earth

Orbit

Geostationary orbit for communication

Geostationary orbit for meteorology

TYPE OF ORBITS
LEO

PROS:
Below the inner Van Allen radiation belt
(reduction to exposed radiation in manned
spaceflight)
Good resolution for Earth observation
Low energetic requirements for communication

CONS:
Bad Earth coverage. Several groundsation
needed.
Space debris. LEO orbit congested.

TYPE OF ORBITS
MEO

PROS:
Good Earth visibility and coverage
Low apparent motion of the
satellite

CONS:
High energetic requirement for
communication. (Earth laptop only
in reception mode)

TYPE OF ORBITS
HEO
PROS:
Possibility that the satellite remains at rest in the
sky
Large Earth coverage

CONS:
Very high energy requirements for
communication. (Exclusive groundsatation, large
solar panels)
Communication latency becomes important
Affected by cosmic radiation and solar wind

ORBIT DESIGN
The orbit design process
The orbit selection process is complex
Gold rule: to meet the largest number of mission
requirements at the least possible cost
The orbit typically defines:
Space mission lifetime
Cost
Environment
Viewing geometry
Payload performance

ORBIT DESIGN
Orbits during the space mission lifetime

Parking orbit: for spacecraft checkout

or storage

Transfer orbit: to move the

spacecraft between orbit
Injection orbit: where the spacecraft
separeted from the launch vehicle
Operational orbit: orbit/s for mission
activities
Disposal orbit: where the spacecraft
will do minimum damage

ORBIT DESIGN
Earth coverage

Footprint Area (FOV): area that a

specific instrument or antenna
can see at any instant.
Instantaneous Access Area (IAA):
all the area that the instrument
could potentially see
Area Coverage Rate (ACR): the
rate at which the instrument is
sensing new land
Area Access Rate (AAR): the rate
at which new land is coming into
the SCs access area.

ORBIT DESIGN
Earth coverage geometry
The fraction of the orbit
over which the point P
is in view is

Fview

/ 180 o

Where

cos

cos

max

/ cos

2 max is called
swath width

the

ORBIT DESIGN
Launch windows
Launch windows: to determine the appropiate time to
launch from the Earth surface into the desired orbital
time

No launch windows exist if L>i for direct orbit or L>180

deg-i for retrograde orbit
One launch window exists if L=i or L=180 deg i
Two launch windows exist if L<i or L<180 deg -i

ORBIT DESIGN
Launch windows
An example: interplanetary probe send to Mars