[AR] Re: [OT] Convention for describing elliptical orbits?
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 16:05:12 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 23 May 2016, Hop David wrote:
To describe an ellipse I have often used radius... For example, the
transfer orbit from LEO to GEO I would describe as a (6678 km x 42164
km) ellipse.
But looking around it seems more often altitude is used instead of distance
from center. Should I be calling this a (300 km x 35786 km) ellipse?
Yes, that is the normal practice for orbits around sizable planetary
bodies. (Conventions for small bodies are less well-established, and for
solar orbits I think everybody just ignores the small-but-finite size of
the Sun and quotes radii.)
Henry
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