Overview of Orbital Parameters
Explore how to model basic two-body satellite orbits in both two and three dimensions using Python. Understand key orbital parameters like eccentricity, inclination, and periapsis, and learn to use libraries such as PyAstronomy and Matplotlib for plotting and animating orbits. Gain practical skills in solving orbital trajectories visually and numerically with Python tools.
We'll cover the following...
Overview
Python is a perfect candidate for modeling simple 2-body orbits, like a satellite orbiting the Earth. (It is also a good candidate for complicated 3-body orbits, but we will not get into 3-body orbits in this course.) You want to be able to model basic circular and elliptical orbits in two and three dimensions. You will take advantage of Matplotlib’s FuncAnimation() function to animate the 2D orbit to show how the orbital velocity increases at the closest point to Earth and decreases at the farthest point from Earth. You can also use Matplotlib’s 3D plotting functionality to plot orbits in 3D, which will help to illustrate the effects of the different orbital parameters.
Solving the 2-body problem requires some form of ordinary differential equations to solve for time and position. These methods usually require a type of numerical method (Newton’s Method, Runge-Kutta methods, ...