• FooBarrington@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    21 hours ago

    Ah, so you’d need an impulse around the apogee, and acceleration around just the perigee can’t create a stable orbit? Makes sense, thanks!

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      21 hours ago

      Thats what I remember, someone who plays KSP will probably be along to telle what I forgot.

      • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        21 hours ago

        I was just thinking this conversation is clear who has played KSP.

        Simplified, you have a rocket orbiting around the earth going over both poles in a circular orbit. Above the north pole its 250km high and fires off its rocket all at once. Now its orbit is an eclipse going to 500km above the south pole, but it will return to 250km above the north pole. If you want to increase your altitude over the north pole you would need to accelerate above the south pole.

        Orbiting is much more about going really really fast than it is about going really high up. Vast majority of the acceleration of launching into orbit goes into acceleration parallel to the ground rather than lifting away from it.