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Hohmann Transfer


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Hi KSP colleagues,

I think that I know the answer to this question, and that the answer is yes.  However, I would please like to confirm it.

The screenshot below shows a maneuver path from a quite circular Kerbin orbit to an encounter with Mun.  By definition, therefore, this is the path of a Hohmann Transfer, right?

Citing Wikipedia, "the Hohmann transfer orbit is an elliptical orbit used to transfer between two circular orbits of different radii around a central body in the same plane."  And this is exactly what is going on, is it not?

Thank you.

Stanley

vcMdyqI.jpg

 

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It's a little hard to see, but it isn't what you would normally term a hohmann transfer. That is normally used to travel between two bodies in orbit around the same third body e.g. mun and minmus or kerbin and Duna.

It also has the characteristic that the pe is exact at the orbit of the inner body and the ap is at the orbit of the outer body.

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10 minutes ago, tomf said:

It's a little hard to see, but it isn't what you would normally term a hohmann transfer. That is normally used to travel between two bodies in orbit around the same third body e.g. mun and minmus or kerbin and Duna.

It also has the characteristic that the pe is exact at the orbit of the inner body and the ap is at the orbit of the outer body.

Still a Hohmann transfer, whether it is between two bodies orbiting a third, transferring from orbit around the parent to the child, or even just transferring between two circular orbits around a single body.

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The basic idea of a Hohmann Transfer is that you are in one orbit and you want to be in another. The minimum delta-v transfer (with two burns) between the two is a third orbit -- one where one apsis is on your current orbit and the other apsis is on your destination orbit.

(In some circumstances, there are more complicated transfers that use more than two burns but have a lower delta-v.)

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