SPACE FLIGHT MECHANICS

Assignment-1

N.R.Nagavarma
SC14B032, 6th Sem, Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram

I. Problem no.1
Assume that a spacecraft is in 1000 km circular orbit around Earth. Design Hohmann
and Bielliptic transfers to another circular orbit of size 125000 km. Make comparison charts
and tables for different intermediate orbit radii for bi elliptic transfers (you can vary between
150000 km and 500000 km.

A. For HOFFMANN TRANSFER:

The Hoffmann transfer is considered as shown in figure 1,

Figure 1. Hoffmann Transfer

B. Calculations:
Given initially the spacecraft is in 1000 Km circular orbit around Earth,r

We know that velocity of circular orbit at required point is given as V= where =398600(Gravitational
r
constant for Earth) and r is radius at required point.
For r
elliptical Orbit of given size the velocity at required point is given by Vis-Viva equation,
2 1
V= ( ).
r a

1 of 6

IIST
 C. MATLAB Code:

INPUT FUNCTION

1 %Hoffmann T r a n s f e r o f a s p a c e c r a f t o f 1000 km c i r c u l a r o r b i t around Earth

2 %t o a n o t h e r c i r c u l a r o r b i t o f s i z e 125000 km .
3 clc ;
4 clear a l l ;
5 r 1 =1000; %Radius o f f i r s t o r b i t
6 r 2 =125000; %Radius o f second o r b i t
7 Re=6378; %Radius o f Earth
8 U=398600; %G r a v i t a t i o n a l Constant o f Earth
9 aT=(( r 1+r 2 ) / 2 )+Re ;
10 [ SEMI MAJOR AXIS OF TRANSFER ORBIT IS , num2str (aT) , KM ]
11 Va=sqrt (U/ ( r 1+Re ) ) ;
12 [ VELOCITY AT a IN CIRCULAR ORBIT IS , num2str (Va) , KM/S ]
13 VTa=sqrt (U ( ( 2 / ( r 1+Re ) ) (1/aT) ) ) ;
14 [ VELOCITY AT a IN TRANSFER ORBIT IS , num2str (VTa) , KM/S ]
15 dva=abs (VaVTa) ;
16 [ VELOCITY IMPULSE AT a , num2str ( dva ) , KM/S ]
17 Vb=sqrt (U/ ( r 2+Re ) ) ;
18 [ VELOCITY AT b IN CIRCULAR ORBIT IS , num2str (Vb) , KM/S ]
19 VTb=sqrt (U ( ( 2 / ( r 2+Re ) ) (1/aT) ) ) ;
20 [ VELOCITY AT b IN TRANSFER ORBIT IS , num2str (VTb) , KM/S ]
21 dvb=abs (VbVTb) ;
22 [ VELOCITY IMPULSE AT b , num2str ( dvb ) , KM/S ]
23 dv=dva+dvb ;
24 [ TOTAL VELOCITY IMPULSE TRANSFER , num2str ( dv ) , KM/S ]
NOTE: The variables a and b in the code are related to figure 1.

D. For BIELLIPTIC TRANSFER:

The Hoffmann transfer is considered as shown in figure 2,

Figure 2. Bielliptic Transfer

Intermediate altitude varies from 150000 to 500000 Km implies the position of b is varying.

E. MATLAB Code:

INPUT FUNCTION

1 %B i e l l i p t i c T r a n s f e r o f a s p a c e c r a f t o f 1000 km c i r c u l a r o r b i t around Earth

2 %t o a n o t h e r c i r c u l a r o r b i t o f s i z e 125000 km f o r d i f f e r e n t i n t e r m e d i a t e

2 of 6

IIST
3 %o r b i t r a d i i f o r b i e l l i p t i c t r a n s f e r s (150000 km and 500000 km)
4
5 clc ;
6 clear a l l ;
7 r 1 =1000; %Radius o f f i r s t o r b i t
8 r 2 =125000; %Radius o f second o r b i t
9 Re=6378; %Radius o f Earth
10 U=398600; %G r a v i t a t i o n a l Constant o f Earth
11 r i=linspace ( 1 5 0 0 0 0 , 5 0 0 0 0 0 , 1 0 0 ) ;
12 aT1=(( r 1+r i ) . / 2 )+Re ;
13 aT2=(( r 2+r i ) . / 2 )+Re ;
14 Va=sqrt (U/ ( r 1+Re ) ) ;
15 VTa=sqrt (U ( ( 2 / ( r 1+Re ) ) (1./aT1 ) ) ) ;
16 dva=abs (VaVTa) ;
17 VT1b=sqrt (U ( ( 2 . / ( r i+Re ) ) (1./aT1 ) ) ) ;
18 VT2b=sqrt (U ( ( 2 . / ( r i+Re ) ) (1./aT2 ) ) ) ;
19 dvb=abs (VT1bVT2b) ;
20 Vc=sqrt (U/ ( r 2+Re ) ) ;
21 VTc=sqrt (U ( ( 2 / ( r 2+Re ) ) (1./aT2 ) ) ) ;
22 dvc=abs ( VcVTc) ;
23 dv=dva+dvb+dvc ;
24 plot ( r i , dv )
25 t i t l e ( r i vs dv ) ;
26 xlabel ( I n t e r m e d i a t e r a d i u s (Km) , F o n t S i z e , 1 3 ) ;
27 ylabel ( T o t a l V e l o c i t y i m p u l s e t r a n s f e r (Km/ s ) , F o n t S i z e , 1 3 ) ;
NOTE: The variables a,b and c in the code are related to figure 2.

F. OBSERVATIONS:
The Total velocity impulse transfer for Hoffmann transfer is 3.9382 Km/s.
The Total velocity impulse transfer for Bielliptic Transfer for different intermediate radii is as shown in
figure,

Figure 3. Variation of intermidiate radius in Bielliptic Transfer

3 of 6

IIST
 The Minimum and Maximum total velocity impulse transfer for Bielliptic Transfer is 3.8419 Km/s and
3.9281 Km/s.
The total velocity impulse for Hoffmann is greater than Bielliptic transfer for different heights as shown.

Table 1. Comparision Chart

Intermediate Altitude Total Velocity Impulse Total velocity Impulse in

(Km) (Km/s) Hoffmann( Km/s )
150000 3.9281 3.9382
200000 3.9079 3.9382
250000 3.8908 3.9382
300000 3.8769 3.9382
350000 3.8656 3.9382
400000 3.8563 3.9382
450000 3.8485 3.9382
500000 3.8419 3.9382

II. Problem no.2

Analyse the orbital life times for circular orbits of sizes varying from 200 km to 1000 km.
Also analyse the life times for different ballistic coefficients varying from 50 to 300 kg/m2.
Assume exponential model for atmosphere.

A. MATLAB Code:

INPUT FUNCTION

1 clc ;
2 close a l l ;
3 clear a l l ;
4 B = 50:50:300;
5 H= 2 0 0 : 1 : 4 0 0 ;
6 f o r i =1: length (B) ;
7 f o r j =1: length (H) ;
8 rho = 1 . 2 2 5 ;
9 syms h
10 U=398600;
11 a=h +6378;
12 T( j )=i n t (B( i ) ( exp ( h / 7 . 2 ) ) / ( sqrt (U ( h+6378) ) rho 1 0 0 0 ) , h ,H( j ) , 0 )
/86400;
13 end
14 plot (H, T)
15 hold on
16 legend ( B=50 , B=100 , B=150 , B=200 , B=250 , B=300 ) ;
17 t i t l e ( Height vs O r b i t a l l i f e p e r i o d ) ;
18
19 end
20
21 ylabel ( O r b i t a l L i f e p e r i o d ( i n days ) , F o n t S i z e , 1 3 ) ;
22 xlabel ( Height from ground (Km) , F o n t S i z e , 1 3 ) ;

4 of 6

IIST
 Figure 4. Variation of a and B vs Orbital life time

Figure 5. For clear graph range of a is and stepsize decreased

5 of 6

IIST
B. OBSERVATIONS:
From the we can conlude that,
1. For a fixed size of circular orbit, the orbital life time increases with the increase in Ballastic coefficient.

2. For a fixed Ballastic coefficient, the orbital life time increases with increase in size of circular orbit.
3. Figure 5 is drawn in order to see clearly the plot which is not clear in figure 4.

6 of 6

IIST